How to manage your salespeople's anxiety and vulnerability

...the most ferocious beast?

In every business of any size, there is a "creature" that is sensitive and can easily turn into the most ferocious beast. Or vice versa...

These are the salespeople or whatever they are called in the business (sales consultant or sales engineer, service manager, account manager, account manager, sales manager, commercial manager, telesales or even general manager) and they are the ones ultimately responsible for achieving the company's turnover.

And there is a reason for this "gullibility" and the fine line that keeps the "salesman" from being transformed from/into a wild beast (metaphorically speaking always).

It has nothing to do with character or personality as some people say. The salesman is not born effective. He is influenced by the environment in which he operates. By the degree of organization and support he receives from the company he works for. By the conditions of the marketplace. By personal or professional relationships. By "setbacks" in life. The salesperson carries into his or her workplace personality traits (such as perseverance, a communicative gift, methodicalness, straightforwardness or even a lack of patience and knowledge of sales management techniques) that he or she must either reinforce or manage (if they are some not so effective 'gifts' - for example, if he or she is overly submissive to customers without protecting the interests of the business).

Thus he realizes early on that he himself (not only the company he works for) is "exposed" to comparison, criticism, competition (internal and external).

Nor does it have so much to do with the fact that his pay often depends on his performance. Studies have shown that often salesperson pay schemes based on a fixed decent income with low sales achievement rates are more effective than those with lower "base" salaries but high percentages on targets. Most salespeople, contrary to what many employers mistakenly think of as entrepreneurs, are not entrepreneurs themselves (I mean they lack an entrepreneurial spirit and culture) and unfortunately rarely think of themselves as entrepreneurs. They seek stability and avoid living with entrepreneurial risk. And stability for them means peace of mind. Calm on the other hand, means better management of challenges when trying to achieve the goal by the business.

The most important reason for the sensitivity of the "sellers" is that practically the survival and growth of the business itself depends on their performance. The sales (turnover) of a business, regardless of its size, is the food or fuel on which it survives and moves.

There are various business activities (and liberal professions) that typically do not include sales departments and do not hire staff under the salesperson label. This does not mean, however, that these activities do not practice the process of selling and that salespeople (however they are called) are not required to be well-versed in the art of selling. Because that's what selling is. An art and as an art, it is learned.

No business or professional can survive without sales: whether you import, manufacture and offer consumer products and services from health to entertainment and tourism. Whether you are a lawyer, doctor, engineer, insurance agent, broker, consultant . Selling involves a process of communication or contact with the "customer" that will allow you to escort them from point A to point B. Although point A may be defined by a different Home (e.g. the customer may not know what you are offering, may not be aware of the need that will lead them to what you are offering or may be able to evaluate other options with a whole host of other possible Origins) point B is a : Will (decision) followed by purchase (of goods or services) completed (as we all understand) by payment (the "food" of the business).

Simple things but not easy. And all along the way (from point A to point B) there are a number of factors or rather obstacles that the "seller" has to overcome or manage (delays from the customer, objections, competition, inability to exert pressure, indecisive customer, socio-economic circumstances and others).

While this process, as a course, should formally have discrete steps, in practice it is never guaranteed to arrive at the destination. Nor is it often certain when that arrival will take place. 'Shortcuts' are often required of the seller, to manage objections or to better secure the parameters of the agreement that accompanies the sale. Shortcuts that often prolong the journey, "tire" the salesperson and unfortunately often cause grumbling from the business that is anxiously awaiting its "food". And that's exactly where the fine line lies. That's exactly where the important point is where a successful salesperson who could have been a "wild sales beast" falls down psychologically and bogs down day by day weakened by failures and criticism.

One of the most important reasons for the decline in salespeople's morale is the peculiarity that accompanies their work. The inability to have complete control over the sales process. The inability to bring the sale when it "must" for the business. Because almost always, the "must and now of the customer" does not coincide with the "must and now of the business".

But businesses have the means and the way to support the seller as much as they can in his difficult task. Not just by understanding, administrative guidance and offering experience internally, but by real support (internally with services and infrastructure : marketing & sales support) and externally (with continuous training and improvement of the skills necessary for him not only to manage the sale as a process, but also himself when difficult circumstances require it.

This is precisely where effective programmes contribute sales coaching for experiential sales team coaching.