3 HOT IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES IN A SALES TEAM

The diverse nature of the buying situation means that there are many types of selling jobs: selling jobs varies according to the nature of the selling task.These are highlighted below:

(1)  ORDER-TAKERS: They respond to already committed customers. we have;

(a) Inside order-takers: Here the customer has full freedom to choose products without the presence of a sales person. The sales assistant's task is purely transactional-recieving payment and passing over the goods. Another form of inside order-takers is the telemarketing sales team who support field sales by taking customers' orders over telephone.
(b) Delivery Salespeople: The salesperson's task is primarily concerned with delivering the product. In the UK milk, newspapers and magazines are delivered to the door. There is little attempt to persuade the household to increase the milk order or number of newspapers taken: changes in order size are customer-driven. Winning and losing orders will be dependent on reliability of delivering and the personality of the salesperson.
(c) Outside order-takers: These sales people visit customers, but their primary function is to respond to customer requests rather than actively seek to persuade. Outside order-takers do not deliver and to a certain extent they are being replaced by more cost efficient telemarketing teams.



(2) ORDER- CREATORS (Missionary salespeople):
In some industries, notably the pharmaceutical industry, the sales person's task is not to close the sale but to persuade the customer to specify or recommend the seller's products. For example, Medical Sales representatives calling on doctors cannot make a direct sale since the doctor does not buy drugs poersonally, but prescribes or recommend (specifies) them for patients. Similarly in the building industry, Architects act as a recommender or specifiers rather than buyers, and so the objective of a sales call cannot be to close the sale. Instead in these situation the selling task is to educate and build goodwill.



(3)  ORDER-GETTERS:
The final category called order-getters, consists of those in selling teams where the major objective is to persuade customers to make a direct purchase. These are the front-line salespeople and in many ways this type of selling represents the most challenging of the 3. Order-getting demands several skills on the part of the salesperson e.g; the ability to identify new prospects, persuading and negotiating and ultimately building new and profitable business in the face of often fierce competition.