Page 157 - DMGT205_SALES_MANAGEMENT

Unit 10: Managing Sales Personnel

ostensibly final price, then by the sales manager and finance manager, who each in succession Notes
try to bump you to a higher price.
Car buyers are fed up. A recent survey by J. D. Power & Associates found that only 35 percent felt
well treated by their dealers, down from 40 percent a decade ago. In 1983, 26 percent of buyers
rated the integrity of their dealers excellent or very good; by 2001, that figure had dropped to
fewer than 20 percent. "People feel beaten up by the process," says the owner of 13 import and
domestic franchises in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. "You think you got a good deal until you
walk out the door. The salesmen are inside doing high fives, and the customer is lying out on the
street."

This is where Saturn came into the car game a few years back and presented its original, no-
dicker sticker system. The price you pay for a Saturn is the one on the sticker (between $9,995 and
$18,675, depending on model and features). That is, however, only part of the package. Buy a
Saturn and you buy the company's commitment to your satisfaction. Their contact with and to
the customer may appear corny, but last year Saturn scored third in a J. D. Power customer
satisfaction study, just behind Lexus and Infiniti, which cost up to five times as much. Maybe it
is corny, but it works. The philosophy of the new breed car dealer, like those at Saturn, is to
exceed customer expectations.
Saturn reformed their sales methods to exploit an obvious market opportunity; the same is true
for the reformed IBM sales force, which is only half the size it was in 1990. Those who survived
are part of a new operation that is a cross between a consulting business and a conventional sales
operation. Big Blue now encourages buyers to shop for salesmen before they shop for products.
Consultants obviously need a more sophisticated set of skills than metal pushers, and in their
new role as purveyors of solutions rather than products, IBM's sales teams do not always
recommend Big Blue's merchandise. About a third of the equipment IBM installs are made by
DEC and other competitors.
One aspect of managing a sales team has not changed much: how you motivate flesh-and-blood
salespeople. It remains the same idiosyncratic bleed of financial incentive, inspiration, and
cajolery. As the sales pros will say: "There is nothing magical about sales. You want to be
truthful and present a credible story so people will want to do business with you now and in the
future. To sell effectively, you need to present the facts, list your supporting arguments, and
learn all the nonverbal cues your customer gives while you're making your presentation."

With one element of sales motivation, how they pay their salespeople, many companies believe
they can improve on tradition. IBM, for example, is following a growing trend to base
compensation partly on customer satisfaction. For some of the new wave salespeople, 45 percent
of the variable component of a paycheck depends on how customers rate the salesperson. In
addition, usually this depends on how well the salesperson has done in helping the customer
meet their business objectives. Result: the salesperson can make a lot more or a lot less.

We're all Salespeople – Officially or Unofficially

What does it take to be a truly outstanding salesperson? As is always the case, there are no
simple answers. Moreover, achieving excellence in one type of sales endeavor, say selling
personal insurance, undoubtedly requires somewhat different aptitudes and skills than achieving
excellence when selling sophisticated information systems to corporate buyers.
High-performing salespeople generally differ from other salespeople in terms of some general
attitudes they have about the job and the manner in which they conduct their business. High-
performing salespeople:

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