Selling is an integral part of the commercial activity. Some argue that it is the cornerstone of any business because it is the point at which buyers and sellers meet and all other functions of a business have the common goal of making that meeting successful (success meaning resulting in a sale). By some, selling is considered an ‘ art of persuading’. On the other hand, the approach of selling calls it a systematic process of repetitive and measurable stepping stones, through which a salesperson communicates his offering enabling the buyer to visualize how to achieve his goal in an economic way.`Selling’ is at the heart of any business and no business can function properly without professional sales people working for it. Occasionally products might be sold by chance if the customer is particularly gullible, but it is evident that even then, only good marketing, superior product quality followed by sales follow up is what leads to repetitive sales.
Hence, it is important for a business to keep an eye on its sales force and benchmark them in order to monitor their performance form time to time. Sales are measured in economic terms i. e. monetary value of a sale depends on revenue generated and eventually the amount of profit earned. Hence no matter what type of sales method is sued be it direct, industrial, indirect etc. it can usually be traced to the sales person who made that sale.
This also makes possible after sales services and handling off issues reported by customers regarding a sold product. No matter what method is used, this traceability aspect can be used to monitor a sales person’s activities regarding the sales activity. Most sales people work on a commission basis and here keeping track of units sold becomes even more crucial both for the business and the sales person as well. Since every business has a certain quota to achieve and targets to meet, hence even the number of units to be sold in order to meet them is also known. Members of a sales team are then assigned certain number of units they are expected to sell and this forms as the main basis as to how they are performing.
Hence a checklist of what to measure will be as follows: Individual targets assigned. Whether they have been reached and if not how large was the difference between what was assigned and what was achieved. Behavioral traits of each sales person in terms of teams mobilized, number of subordinates managed, campaigns taken part in etc. Personality traits such as aggressive or amicable. This helps determine the sort of selling strategy a sales person uses; whether he/she goes for the hard sell or goes along with the customer. In all of these three categories, what is to be measured is leadership skills, dedication, communication capabilities, achievements and whether the sales person is beneficial for the company or not.