Employ quality people to exceed targets | Sunday Observer

Employ quality people to exceed targets

24 January, 2021

Quality is defined as, “The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind”; “The degree of excellence of something”; “A distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.”

With the prevalence of Covid-19 and its adverse impact on many areas particular to business, sales and marketing, income, revenue, finance and economy, most companies are compelled to downsize customers and employees including the sales force, impose pay cuts and halt the implementation of plans and activities.

This may seem as the best option in today’s context. However, keeping in mind your “ultimate goal” this may perhaps not be the right decision.

As an entrepreneur you need to identify the “root cause of the problem” for the company’s underperformance and underlying factors for the crises that you and your company now face. Low sales and performances are only the tip of the iceberg. You need to diagnose the real problem to find solutions.

Along with the other elements in the marketing mix, you need to focus on quality people.

If you have mediocre sales and marketing representatives, they will definitely produce mediocre results.They will even disturb or delay your processes. When they are in the field for each and every problem whether small or big they will call you frequently to sort out the problem. They would always be, “part of the problem”.

Selfish people

This is mainly due to the fact those representatives have a, “Thus far, no further” attitude. They are selfish people who think only about their personal benefits, goals and objectives. They waste company resources and are liabilities to the company.

If you want revenue and profits you should always have quality people in the superachievers or the elite club category.

This category of people would have the attitude of “Going that extra mile”. They will think and act independently and take timely decisions with your consent to benefit the organisation. This type of people are always, “Part of the solution”. These people are the “assets” of the company and the income, profit and wealth generators of the organisation. When you pick the right person, the business and the organisation will move in the right direction.

Who is responsible for quality?

Everyone is responsible for quality. When you visit some organisations you get dissatisfied or are disappointed with the reception you get from the security guard at the entrance or sometimes the way the receptionists treat you. In certain cases you get dissatisfied before visiting the service provider’s office.

This happens when you try to call the officer whom you need to contact but get unpleasant service from the receptionist.

In other cases the officer whom you meet to seek for his services may not provide quality service. This may be due to lack of knowledge or lackadaisical attitude.

This type of staff member may spoil the image and the business of the company. Hence, you need to start training from the security officers upto the managers on how to have the correct attitude and provide the best service at all times.

Some companies as soon as they hire a sales representative or marketing officer give them the product literature or catalogues and request them to memorise the contents and detail it to customers.

Minimal time is spent on training and the newcomers are accompanied by the seniors and are asked to observe a few presentations and the newcomers are compelled to detail on their own.

This type of representative will aggravate the situation and definitely halt the progress of the company due the rejections of the fresher and his or her products and the company.

To succeed in today’s business world you need to select the ideal sales and marketing representatives and provide “comprehensive training” and ensure they are “very competent” and “competitive” before their field visits to meet customers.

The sales representatives or sales officers and marketing representatives should have the knowledge and skills to successfully carry out their duties and meet or exceed the company targets on quality, sales, growth, efficiency, performances and productivity.

The important “knowledge” areas for sales and marketing personnel are: Company, market and industry, product, technical, territory, sales and marketing, company policies and procedures, customer and competitor knowledge.

Skills

Among the skills needed for a sales or marketing representatives are: Professional communication or skilled communication (which includes, opening, creating interest, presentation, questioning techniques, active listening, providing a balanced perspective, paraphrasing and summarising, objections and rejections handling and closing skills), rapport- building skills, prospecting, network marketing, precise time management, prioritation, organisational problem solving, customer relationship management systems, digital marketing, technological, information gathering, collaboration, negotiation, product demonstration, being persuasive, interpersonal skills, teamwork, critical thinking and analytical skills, computer literate, change management, crisis and conflict management, group communication and leadership skills. In the past most of these skills were needed only by the managers.

To succeed in the ever-changing business environment, you should make your sales and marketing representatives familiar with these important knowledge and skills to make them meet or exceed the company’s qualitative and quantitative goals and objectives.

This will fundamentally make them more self-confident.

Hence this will make them perform even better. What is important here is that you should make them perform consistently. To achieve this, you must inculcate the “winning attitude” in your employees.

At the outset, the company’s vision and mission statements along with the goals and objectives should be advocated to the new employees.They should be made to believe in themselves, the management and the company, besides all the outlined knowledge that they have gathered. Professionalism and strong work ethic should be regarded by them as their eyes.

Make them have “continuous sales and marketing education.” Make them realise that, razor sharp focus, relentless hard work and commitment to the work at hand are the contributing factors for greater conquests.

With this type of inspiration they will be geared to meet the “World of Challenges and Opportunities” and make your company and products or services No.1, thus exceeding the expectations of the company as they would know how to generate revenue and profits in spite of changes, crises or conflicts that may arise when marching towards business success.

Then perhaps, they could fly high in the business world like eagles. It is upto you to decide whether you want parrots or eagles in your company. During my inspirational lectures I used to ask a simple question from participants as to how much they should contribute towards the company’s success and how much to expect in return.

Most of them used to say 50:50. In other words give or contribute 50 percent to the company and seek 50 percent from the company. Some of the participants used to say 60:40. None of that is the correct answer as they are under-expectation and under-performance. The ratio of 100:100 is the correct answer.

Do not compromise on quality. Always focus on quality. Quantity will follow sooner rather than later. Invest in the right people. Downsizing may not be always the best option.

The New Year has dawned. Think about the new year resolutions that you have made.

With everything falling in its place, “Growing growth” is the order of the day. Should you be interested in seeing “new horizons” in your business, it is the time for “expansion” of your business.

Are you willing to take up this challenge? Do you believe in yourself and your people so that they could improve and add value to your organisation. Everything is up to you. You could decide now as you are the best judge. Quality attracts quality. Quality is everything and everything is quality. Their competency will win the game for you.

The writer is a specialist in professional communication skills, sales and marketing, training and a business consultant with 30 years experience.

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