Article by Ganapathy Vedachalam, CEO, Blowchenn Machines.
It is an oft repeated adage “A single dedicated person can make a difference“. Like most cynical human beings, I too considered this with disdain until last month I was proved wrong.
A month back we were planning to replace my spouse’s car and after considerable deliberation, we decided that despite the fact that she had experience of driving only a manual stick, it was time for her to graduate to an automatic. Hence, her misgivings and nervousness on adapting to new technology notwithstanding, we decided to go ahead and look for an automatic car.
Now it is a well-known fact, that, in India, the prices, discounts and freebies offered by most Car dealers are identical. Owing to my spouse’s work pressure, we could test drive the cars only on a Sunday. Also, since my spouse had withheld consent for an automatic car, until she actually test drove one, I had to request the dealership to offer me a manual and an Automatic of the same model for a test drive on a Sunday morning.
Much to my surprise and dismay two of the dealers close to my residence regretted, albeit respectfully that they could not honour my request since they do not work on Sunday’s and even if they did, they did so only with a skeleton staff. Now I was stunned. Since this was immediately post lockdown, I was under the impression and rightfully so that everyone was hungry for business. However, apparently, there were some who did not share my sentiments.
I called a dealer who was slightly away and I was told the sales person was away and would call back. Oh! I have heard that plenty of times in my life. I was wondering what next, when to my pleasant surprise the salesman called. He was courteous and was extremely eager to cater to every request of mine and more. He even offered to bring both the manual and the automatic cars home on a Sunday morning for the test drive.
When we went to the dealership on that Sunday morning everything was as promised, we had the test drives on both the Manual and the Automatic and decided to book the Automatic. The sales person was very courteous and the whole experience was pleasant.
A week later my spouse was having some misgivings on the automatic issue and we decided to request the dealership if they could arrange for an extended test drive on the automatic for my spouse to get a real feel of the vehicle and be reassured as to its suitability. I was a bit sceptical, when I made the call. However, to my pleasant surprise the sales person readily agreed and told me not to worry and we could drive around till we were satisfied. The arrangements on the said day were as promised. We decided to stay with the automatic after all and the car was delivered as promised.
Now, was it a perfect experience? – No, of course not. There were hiccups. However, there is no disputing the fact that it was the attitude of one single dedicated sales person that swing the sale for this dealership. They had no edge regarding their price or the freebies they were offering. On the contrary the others were probably marginally better. It was the comfort quotient and the pleasure of dealing with a person who was eager and willing to go the extra mile to please the potential customer.
In this day and age where it is getting more and more difficult for businesses to differentiate their product both technically and commercially, the single factor that we have over our rivals is the dedication of our sales personnel and the quality of our customer service. I experienced it first-hand. A dedicated and sincere sales person can definitely attract business for dealerships and on the contrary a casual irritating sales person can effectively drive potential customers away.
This experience for me, reinforced the need for quality sales personnel who are dedicated and sincere. Moreover, the need for proper training and orientation for sales personnel can never be over emphasised. Most customers today thanks to the internet and freely available information are very well informed, in most cases better informed about the product than the sales person. It is very frustrating, when you find a sales person who is not fully informed of all the features of the product that he is trying to sell. I have experienced this several times and it always lowers my opinion of the brand and the company concerned. This is something no business desires.
Consequently, every organisation should focus on: –
| 1. | Dedicated and Sincere Sales force. |
| 2. | Proper training (Technical and Commercial) for Sales personnel. |
| 3. | Sales personnel should be well versed about their product’s features, |
| 4. | Whenever a new or an upgraded product is released, Adequate training to ensure Sales personnel are made aware of the pertinent technical information. |
| 5. | If the product is extremely technical, one technical person can assist the Sales person. |
| 6. | If not have the sales literature explain in detail the technical features. |
| 7. | We are now living in a 24×7 world. Hence in case of requests for late evening / Sunday sales calls or test drives (Product demonstration) some arrangements must be made to the customer’s satisfaction. After all such requests are few and far between and if satisfied will have very high sales conversion ratio. |
| 8. | Constant repeated training to reinforce good sales techniques and update sales personnel’s product knowledge. |
| 9. | Ensuring that the Salesmen are sufficiently motivated to give their best day in and day out |
In the difficult business environment prevailing currently, we cannot spare any chance of differentiating our offer from our competitors. Every single tool that we have at our disposal, to make our offer attractive, can be copied by our competitors and in some cases even bettered. Well, all but one. The quality of our Sales personnel, their demeanour, their attitude and the quality of the service that they offer the customer, is the single most important differentiating factor which can enable us retain our existing customers and gain new ones.
Hence in the battle for survival and growth in today’s harsh business environment, the mantra for success is – Please ensure that your Sales Personnel are: –
| COMPETENT: | They should be suitably qualified and competent. |
| ATTITUDE: | They should have the correct attitude to serve customers. |
| TRAINED: | They should be suitably trained to sell the product / service. |
| COMMITTED: | They should be totally dedicated and committed to their job. |
| MOTIVATED: | They should be inspired and motivated to perform their best at all times. |