The Secrets Of Successful Fmcg Sales Recruitment

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Fast-moving consumer goods are called so because of the speed at which they fly off the shelves. All regularly consumed products, from milk chocolate to mp3 players, fall into this category.

Selling FMCGs requires a certain degree of aptitude for sales, but not to any extent that may make life difficult. For example, the person who wants to buy a case of beer for the weekend is going to buy one anyway – hardly 1 in 40 people who buy beer will stop to think about the brand at the time of purchase, and even fewer will ask someone at the store to help with the decision.

Working in retail requires a huge amount of stamina and patience. Leave is in short supply, so candidates may find themselves working 6 days a week, and in long shifts that never seem to end. The holiday season is particularly nightmarish, as the whole world turns up to go shopping, and the cashier is expected to stay good-humored through the entire process.

Standing for long hours requires physical stamina, while dealing with disgruntled shoppers who want their lines to keep moving fast requires mental stamina of a completely different order. In addition, anyone working in the FMCG sector needs to be well-informed about the products he/she is selling. Since a number of stores carry multiple brands, the salesman should be prepared to honestly discuss the pros and cons of each brand and to do some much-needed hand-holding for the prospective buyer.

Advertising for FMCGs requires a great deal of creativity, especially as a large set of possibilities has already been acted upon – the FMCG sector comes up with frequent ads, and does not skimp on them. Be ready to pounce on any current affairs that could be used in an ad script, and be fast and relentless while carrying out your idea.

Account managers and sales managers are highly in demand in the FMCG sector. As with all management jobs, these jobs require excellent communication, the ability to think on one’s feet, a good head for calculations, and the capacity to keep calm even in highly stressful situations. Risk management and loss prevention, in particular, require highly steady nerves.

As with all sectors, jobs in FMCG sales are available at all levels, with all sorts of salaries and benefits packages. Picking the right candidate is a matter of being a good judge of character, and of knowing exactly what is needed to do the listed job. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of the FMCG industry and its sales sector is one of the best secrets to successful FMCG sales recruitment. The number of applicants will continue to remain high, so just grit your teeth and select the one who looks good enough.

Some Of The Very Best Sales People Are Introverts

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Despite the common perception that sales people have to be outgoing and extroverted in order to perform their jobs effectively this does not hold true for many sales positions. While it is definitely true that the vast majority of sales positions require extroverts and all things being equal an extrovert is usually the more suitable person to hire, in our experience it can be a big mistake to assume that just because an applicant is introverted he is not suitable.

Be careful though, there are introverts that can be very effective and there are introverts that will be complete failures. The key seems to lie in a combination of the other characteristics that they possess. Another important issue is the specific sales role for which he/she is being considered.

As we shall see knowing what exactly is the sales role to be performed and the other qualities that the person has can go a very long way towards making a better hiring decision. Many of these more introverted sales types do not come off very well in interviews so you will be doing them a bit of a favor by investigating them more carefully and you might just do yourself a favor by uncovering a diamond in the rough who goes on to be quite successful.

First of all lets define what we mean by the term introverted. In our salestestonline.com reports we measure this on our Sociability scale. We define this in the following way:
A measure of the need to interact with others or to obtain the stimulation of interacting with other people. It can be thought of as introversion vs. extroversion. An outward (people) orientation vs. an inward (task) orientation. It is not a measure of friendliness. Other ways to view it are: empathy level, need for acceptance of others, persuasiveness. Among the things it will impact are communication style, thinking style, response to others, prospecting.

High levels of this factor mean that the individual is very extroverted, sociable, people oriented, outgoing, needs lots of interaction, is very persuasive, empathetic, needs acceptance and recognition, communicates persuasively.

Low levels of this factor mean that the individual is very introverted, reserved, work or task oriented, analytical, technically oriented, is skeptical, a tangible or concrete thinker, communicates formally, factually or directly.

So what we mean when we use the term introverted is that the individuals are reserved, work or task oriented, analytical, tangible/concrete thinkers, technically oriented, skeptical, formal, factual, direct.

What other characteristics do the introverts possess that contribute to their success? To answer this question lets turn again to the definition of one of the trait drives in our salestestonline.com reports. Specifically our Assertiveness scale, which we define in the following way:
A measure of how assertive the individual is. It can be thought of as the need to control one’s working environment. Other ways to view it are: competitiveness, self-motivation, drive, dominance, confidence, ego, the desire to make ones own decisions or the need to be in charge. Among the things it will impact are the type of direction the individual needs, the way the individual makes decisions, response to incentives, prospecting and closing.

High levels of this factor mean that the individual is highly competitive, dominant, authoritative, assertive, take-charge, needs to “win”, needs to be in control and be recognized, thinks big, is risk oriented.

Low levels of this factor mean that the individual needs harmony, affiliation and belonging, seeks guidance and direction, avoids risk, likes to be a member of the team, is cautious and careful, helpful and considerate.

In our experience the introverts that tend to be more successful in sales tend to have high levels of assertiveness. Therefore, though reserved, formal, factual, analytical, technical and work oriented they have a great deal of drive, competitiveness, self-motivation, need to be in charge, need to win, need to be in control.

What are some of the things you should you be aware of when hiring this type of person?
1. First of all remember that they often do not come off particularly well in interviews. Unlike extroverts they are out of their arena and can be rather uncomfortable and ill at ease during the interview and may seem brusque, cold or aloof. How comfortable they appear will be in direct proportion to their knowledge of the subject being discussed.
2. These are individuals that will often work very hard but have great difficulty with new business development. The harsher the rejection and the more that prospecting is a part of the job they are expected to perform the greater the risk. A qualifier to this is that if the rejection is not particularly harsh then they may be just fine. If new business development is an important part of the job, perhaps team the individual with someone who can open doors or perhaps assist him/her with some lead generation tools.
3. Because they are very hard working they will likely invest a lot of time in the job. There will usually be no lack of effort. Be aware however of their tendency to work long hours (planning, paper work, computer time) while avoiding customer interaction. Call reluctance can be a problem.
4. These are individuals who tend to have a very thorough grasp of their subject matter. They also tend to be very technical in style. For this reason if your products/services are technically oriented they may be a very good fit.
5. These are individuals who tend to be very business-like. As noted they also tend to be very thorough and well prepared. Their style is often a good fit for selling to professional types i.e. engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, architects, and senior managers in businesses of a technical orientation or in many financial areas.
6. These individuals can be quite consultative i.e. they may have difficulty getting in front of the prospect due to some of the qualities described above but once in front of the customer their grasp of their subject and their business like approach results in a highly professional style. What they tend to lack in pure persuasiveness they tend to make up for by presenting very logical arguments to purchase. A different approach, but a potentially effective one nevertheless.
7. Training and development in the area of communication and interaction will definitely help. You will never change them into extroverts of course but you can definitely soften a potential weakness.

I hope you can see that despite the widespread assumption that one has to be an extrovert to be successful in sales there are a lot of potentially very good sales people out there that you should not overlook just because they do not interview very well.

Sales Techniques For Handling Customer Objections

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How many times have you have been hit with an objection that you really didnt handle as well as you might have? What would it mean to you, if you had the perfect sales techniques to be able to handle any objection that came up – at any time and in any situation? What would happen to your income if you (and your team, if you’re a Sales Manager) dealt with each and every sales objection just that little bit more effectively.

Objection Handling is probably one of the most important sales techniques. Top salespeople appear to do it effortlessly, yet most of us recognise that we dont deal with objections as well as we would like.

Strong objection handling skills will enable you to uncover and address the exact concerns that can make it hard to close a sale. Theyll help you secure more business, and earn more commission and bonus. However, fail to improve your objection handling and youll continue losing deals you should have won and you wont even know why you missed out.

In this article, well cover three areas:

– Identifying where so many salespeople go wrong with handling sales objections

– Introducing some basic principles for objection handling, and

– Outlining a best-practice, 6-step process for successful objection handling

Where do sales people go wrong?

Typically, its right at the start of the process. When an objection comes up, its so easy to see it as a threat – to the deal, your commission and your bonus and therefore you address it as though you’re under attack. You try to get it out of the way as quickly as possible in the hope to move nearer closing the business. On the one hand, you may become overly defensive, delivering a weak answer and leaving an unconvinced customer. Alternatively, you may over-react and go on the attack – leaving your customer wondering what you are hiding. Either way, its certainly not the outcome youre looking for. When emotions are running high, we often find ourselves saying things that we wouldn’t normally contemplate. So it is vital to find a way to control our emotions, so we can continue to communicate effectively with our customer.

Basic Objection Handling Sales Techniques :

So what is going to help us ‘rein in’ the emotions that block effective communications?

Firstly, you have to buy yourself some time to calm yourself down and construct a compelling answer. It would also be useful to minimise any potential conflict in the situation, so well need to demonstrate some empathy.

Put yourself in the buyers shoes. A buyer seeks out someone who understands their concerns and who can help to address them. So one of the must have sales techniques to be good with questioning skills to get to the root of the customers concern. You also need to be sure that youve addressed the issue to the customers satisfaction, so youll need to check this by asking the customer.

If as salespeople we can alter our mind-set from overcoming sales objections (defensive) to improving customers understanding (assistance), it positions the objection handling process in a whole new light.

6 Step Advanced Objection Handling Sales Technique:

Our free sales techniques videos on our SERIOUS Selling website go into a lot more detail on how to overcome sales objections, but for now, let me outline our 6 steps to take your customer through, when they seek some assistance to address their concern.

Listen and Acknowledge – dont interrupt in your eagerness to defend yourself, your product and company, but instead, let the customer talk and then acknowledge their concern.

Ask for More – Yes! Ask for more objections, or putanother way, ask if the customer has any other concerns that would stop them doing business with you. Note its also a test close.

Explore the Objection – simply askquestions so you fully understand what the customer has concerns about and that you arent making any assumptions.

Confirm your Understanding – paraphrase back the customer your understanding of what theyve expressed; this also buys you some thinking time.

Answer or Defer – Answer the question/concern to the best of your ability, but dont be afraid to defer your answer and promise to come back to them.

Checking and Closing – Ask the customer if you have addressed their concern to their satisfaction, then use this opportunity to close the deal

Each of these steps is relatively easy, so by not getting defensive, by looking at the situation as the chance to help your customer and by stepping slowly through these 6 points, overcoming sales objections will become one of the simplest sales techniques to apply, and youll soon see the rewards in the form of large commissions.

Research Proves The Benefit Of Sales Jokes In The Office

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The research clearly indicates that where employees are enjoying their working day their productivity is much higher. Some corporations fear that by introducing more humour into the workplace they will jeopardise productivity but the contrary has been proven in numerous reports. A few sales jokes or other anecdotes will go a long way to achieving a good working environment. In addition businesses that embrace humour also achieve improved turnover in sales and better profitability.

Sales managers should be encouraged to include a sales meeting joke during regular get togethers of the sales team. By including a few jokes about sales the team will connect much better with the sales manager and feel that he is onside and understands the pressures that they are under to achieve targets, particularly in difficult times. Often a sales training joke will re-engage your trainees when you are in the process of delivering knowledge and skills through a workshop format.

Workshops can be more interactive than a presentation format but in either scenario, the telling of a good sales joke will impress your audience and have them listening more closely to the information you are imparting. All too often presenters and sales managers fail to recognise the benefit s of a sales joke during the training session or office meeting. Jokes on sales can also then be relayed to the staff in administration or other divisions as people connect with one another through the day. This creates a sense of fun within the office which does not negate form productivity. Rather, all the research indicates that the telling of sales jokes (only needs to be one or two) through the working day enhances efficiency and accuracy in staff.

In addition sales jokes shared create a greater sense of belonging and staff are motivated and wanting to provide greater support to their team mates. All of these factors contribute not only to a much more friendly and enjoyable work day experience but also to the productivity and profitability of a company.

Failure to recognise the benefits of sales jokes and the sharing of other stories will lead to a dull working environment and reduced productivity. It is important to recognise the appropriateness of sales jokes. Best to avoid adult sales jokes unless those present are close friends who you know will not be offended in any way. A well timed sales meeting joke or sales training joke can recapture the attention of staff and ensure that they listen more carefully to the other information you are discussing with them.

Jokes about sales are readily accessible on the internet – if you are in a sale manger role or involved in the presentation of sales training courses then you would be well advised to have a few very good sales jokes up your sleeve so you can break any perceived monotony and have your audience sitting up and more involved. Companies today invest considerable sums in the training of staff. If you become recognised as a trainer or sales manager who knows the value of humour and has a few jokes about sales on the ready, as well as being knowledgeable in the field you are bound to receive many referrals.

Your will not only boost the revenue of the companies which retain your services but your own income will increase because of the positive feedback and referrals you will receive.

Reasons to Get Sales Training in San Diego

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When you’re looking to promote and sell services or products, sales training in San Diego can go a long way in providing you a stable, reliant platform to do so. It’s self-explanatory that your interest in learning is the most important aspect of the training process, but the professionalism of the trainer counts for a lot too. If you give it your best interest and the trainer does that as well, you’ll be provided with important and powerful tools which can help a lot in allowing you to easily sell and pitch ideas, products and services.

Make Good Decisions on the Spot

Sales trainers will do the best they can to provide you with comprehensive advice and help in turning you into a professional salesman. Good services like this will teach you how to read people, how to convince them they need your particular products and how to avoid rejection in more ways than one. Language is an important aspect in each salesman’s profession; without it, you’re pretty much useless. But there’s a difference between regular sales pitches and those who increase the odds of landing the sale considerably. Sentence structure, messages and key words need to be learned in order to get the prospective client’s attention right from the start and not allow too much time for doubt. This also makes it a lot easier to improvise your message on the spot, increasing your sales pitch flexibility considerably.

Learning Techniques that Work

In most cases, sales training in San Diego will be based on teaching you techniques which really work and have been also proven to do so. These are used by other sales people in town, and they can vouch for their success, granted you convince them to share their secrets with you. Even though it may seem like generic advice at first, there are more in-depth aspects, like NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming) that once learned, can offer a significant advantage over your competitors. And it can also make your message sink in better into your perspective client’s mind.

Keeping it Local

Another overlooked aspect is that you really need someone from San Diego to teach you in order for you to promote your business there. Each city has a different mentality in terms of how they do their business, and knowing that mentality and the habits associated with it can go a long way in increasing your odds of landing a sale.

For more information, please visit http://www.salestrainingsandiego.info/