Sales Representative

A sales representative’s job is to promote products and services to potential customers, pitch products with a unique selling promotional strategy, and maintain existing customer accounts by ensuring customers' accounts have a proper and smooth sales process.

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Who is a sales representative?

A sales representative (sales rep or salesperson) is an individual who is responsible for selling products, services, or solutions on behalf of a company to prospective customers. Their main objective is to build relationships with potential customers, understand their needs and preferences, and then promote and pitch the company’s offerings to meet those needs.

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What does a sales representative do?

The responsibilities of sales representatives are:

Prospecting
Building relationships
Product/service presentation
Needs assessment
Customized solutions
Handling objectives
Negotiations
Closing deals
After-sales support
Sales reporting

Prospecting: Sales representatives spend a significant amount of them identifying potential customers or leads. They use different methods, such as researching online databases, using social media platforms, attending industry events, and networking to find individuals or businesses that might be interested in their company’s products and services.
Building relationships: Sales representatives are relationship builders. They work on establishing trust and rapport with potential customers to create a foundation for future business opportunities.
Product/service presentation: Once they identify potential customers, sales reps need to effectively present the products and services offered by the company. This includes explaining the benefits and unique selling propositions of the product compellingly. Sales reps must be knowledgeable and confident about the products they are selling.
Needs assessment: During the sales process, sales representatives conduct a thorough needs assessment to understand the specific needs of the customer and pain points of the potential customer.
Customized solutions: Based on the needs assessment, sales reps customize their sales pitch and the solutions to suit the individual customer. They emphasize how their offerings can provide value and solve the customer’s challenges.
Handling objectives: Perspective customers may raise objections or concerns during sales. Sales representatives need to be skilled at handling objections diplomatically and providing suitable responses to alleviate customer objections.
Negotiations: Sales reps engage in negotiations to discuss pricing, terms and conditions while keeping the customer’s interest and budget constraints.
Closing deals: A critical part of a sales rep’s role is to close deals successfully, which means encouraging the customer to make a purchase decision throughout the buying journey.
After-sales support: Sales representatives often continue to be involved after the sales is made. They provide post-sales support, and address customer concerns.
Sales reporting: Sales representatives maintain sales activities, leads, and outcomes records. On the basis of the outcomes, reports are prepared and shared with the team and progress is made towards the target.

What are the skills of sales representatives?

The skills of sales representatives are as follows:

Communication skills
Negotiation skills
Know customer needs
Product knowledge
Time management
Problem-solving skills
Emotional intelligence

Communication skills: Sales representatives must be excellent verbal and written communicators. They must articulate product features, benefits, and pricing and listen actively to customers' needs.
Negotiation skills: Sales representatives often negotiate to reach mutually beneficial agreements with customers. Strong negotiation skills help them close deals and achieve favourable terms for both parties.
Know customer needs: Successful sales reps take the time to understand their customer's need and pain points that help identify these; they can tailor their sales pitch to provide relevant information.
Product knowledge: In-depth knowledge of the product or services they sell is essential for sales representatives. They must be able to answer customer questions, address concerns, and position their offerings and solutions to the customer needs.
Time management: Sales representatives handle multiple leads and clients simultaneously. Effective time management helps them prioritize tasks, manage appointments, and focus on results-driven practices.
Problem-solving skills: Sales representatives encounter various challenges during the sales process. Strong problem–solving abilities allow them to find creative solutions to overcome hurdles and meet customer needs.
Emotional intelligence: Understanding and empathizing with customer emotions helps sales representatives build trust and rapport. Emotional intelligence allows them to connect with customers on a deeper level.

Employee pulse surveys:

These are short surveys that can be sent frequently to check what your employees think about an issue quickly. The survey comprises fewer questions (not more than 10) to get the information quickly. These can be administered at regular intervals (monthly/weekly/quarterly).

One-on-one meetings:

Having periodic, hour-long meetings for an informal chat with every team member is an excellent way to get a true sense of what’s happening with them. Since it is a safe and private conversation, it helps you get better details about an issue.

eNPS:

eNPS (employee Net Promoter score) is one of the simplest yet effective ways to assess your employee's opinion of your company. It includes one intriguing question that gauges loyalty. An example of eNPS questions include: How likely are you to recommend our company to others? Employees respond to the eNPS survey on a scale of 1-10, where 10 denotes they are ‘highly likely’ to recommend the company and 1 signifies they are ‘highly unlikely’ to recommend it.

Based on the responses, employees can be placed in three different categories:

Promoters
Employees who have responded positively or agreed.
Detractors
Employees who have reacted negatively or disagreed.
Passives
Employees who have stayed neutral with their responses.