I have never been hired as a sales person. But, several times where I have worked (as an employee and as a consultant), I have for some reason been deployed to marketing/sales. I think I have been to blame, each time, for the re-deployment, because I get “converted” into a salesman when the employer finds me meddling with their sales people or the sales process….
Fortunately, most of my adventures in the sales arena have resulted in success. Which, I think then, qualifies me to offer sales advice, from a now well-formed non-marketer’s sales philosophy.
From my experience, a buying decision takes place when three critical realities are available as a package:
- The product is presented before a qualified customer (physically; on a phone call; online, it does not mater). Professional marketers call this segmentation. If you don’t do your ground work to determine who you need to target with marketing or sales propositions, and how the product will be available to them, you will find yourself spending lots of money and working too hard to sell – without success. Qualification includes ability (or a means) for the customer to pay for the product.
- Clear, understandable (to the potential buyer) information about a product is availed. What is it? What does it do? Why do you need it?…Such. Here is how I sell moringa oleifera to health-conscious potential buyers: a serving of moringa contains more vitamin C than a comparable amount of orange, more vitamin A than carrot, more calcium than yoghurt, and more potassium than banana. “You can research it on the internet,” I conclude. The statement never fails to impress. Most of my would-be customers actually check it out, and find it to be true. The confirmation and the acquired trust often wins me a customer.
- A value proposition to the customer (promises to solve a need or satisfy a want). Ask Coca Cola! Or the people who sell soaps that claim to kill “99% germs”… For me, I sell products I can also buy, so I guess I come out more convincing. A friend of mine helped me put this in perspective when he told me why he only builds middle-class housing: “Because I sell to people who are like me. They can identify with my own needs,” he said.
Note: it is important that ALL three conditions be satisfied. They are not presented here in any order, but they are all critical.
An example: When I used to edit Step Magazine (then widely known by many of my age-mates), we established through research two critical actions each month that satisfied ALL three conditions for success in sales. We had:
- We had to have the magazine on newsstands on the 27th (not earlier; not later) of the month. 27th was the date, then, when 80 to 90% of people got paid. When we presented the magazine on newsstands earlier, the majority of our potential buyers would not have cash to pay, and by the time they got cash, they had seen the magazine enough times to have gotten used to seeing it there… It had no urgent appeal to it. If we brought out the magazine to the streets after 27th, most people would have spent their discretionary income.
- The headline needed to be bold and clear (how I met my wife; Jobless; Death in a bucket), and the colours on the magazine needed to be bright, primary colours.
- We also reviewed the distributors’ schedule of ‘allocations’ and ordered reductions or increases to each distribution point based on the number of magazines sold and/or returned from the distribution point.
By watching out for these three realities carefully each month, the rest became the happy routine through which we saw our sales grow from 8,000 copies per month in Kenya to over 28,000 over just a few years – not counting our growth in other countries.
In another venture when we ventured to assemble computers (Diamond Systems, the first company to assemble computers in Kenya), our key package consisted of three elements: cheaper, market education (we published our products’ specifications) and, to win over our competition’s claims of “brand superiority”, we offered a two-year warranty.
So, before you ask me, or someone else a question I face frequently (Is there a market?) first consider these critical requirements for success in sales/marketing: who (to target) and how the product will be available to them; the product’s appeal (to the buyer); and clarity of the information relating to the product, again, to the intended buyer.
Haron Wachira 