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Harish Bijoor

Make everyone in your organisation feel part of the sales process.

They are salespersons too. Why not, when they generate hot leads from a huge list of prospects.

WHO is a salesperson?

The typical definition points squarely at that one entity that runs out there in the field. That one entity that does the sales prospecting first. That very entity that makes the cold call. That entity that does the sales pitch. And most certainly that one entity that closes the sale and brings in the moolah for the company he represents or the individual purpose he touts.

The year is 2005. This rather antediluvian definition of a salesperson is changing at a rapid pace. The narrow spotlight that fell on the front-ended salesperson as the sales entity of the organisation, focused in his revenue-tapping activity, is gradually spreading wider and wider in the organisation.

The salesperson prospects. And so do a host of back-end operators today. Whole departments that sit behind computer databases and pore through directories of people who fit the profile of the company in question are becoming critical sales-lead points for the man in the field to follow. Is this a salesperson as well? But of course!

The salesperson tele-calls. And so do a host of call-centre operatives set up to generate hot leads from a whole fuzzy and amorphous list of prospects. Companies in the market for the aggressive sale boast of deep-seated call centres that work 24X7 to pass the lead on to the man or woman on the front. Is this a salesperson as well? Most certainly yes.

The salesperson plants the seed of awareness in the minds of consumers. Your range of superior toilet-cleaner needs to be planted as a thought in the minds of prospective consumers. While the salesperson on the field does this physically one on one, advertising of both the mass media and specific kind does it all the while. Is the advertising creative person in his ponytail, the media-person in his breeches and the peppy client servicing `types' sales entities as well? Most vehemently yes.

The salesperson is therefore not one. The salesperson is many! Many entities that make for the end purpose of creating the awareness, stoking it on into an interest in the potty-cleaner, causing a flaming desire for it and, of course, clinching it into an action of a sale.

And is that the end of the road? Not at all. The post-sale process is equally important. Is the post-sale service person an important entity in the chain of causing the sale and keeping it as such? Yes again. The service person is a sales person as well. Every service person is a salesperson at large, with the very big potential of making that sale happen for a second time and most certainly a very positive entity working to create a positive appeal for the company that has done the selling — in for a repeat purchase at some time in the near or distant future.

The focus of the narrow beam therefore widens. And there's more.

I enter the realm of your sales office. There sits a guard at the door. Is he a salesperson? Yes, he is. Your office receptionist who is painting her nails as she responds to a call is a salesperson as well. Everyone is.

Why is it then that everyone in the enterprise of a sale does not really think he or she is a salesperson? And why is it that everyone listed out here does not really participate in the enterprise of selling with the vigour and zest that the front-ended salesperson of the organisation displays?

These are indeed key issues that worry many a man, woman and child in the realm of selling. Trouble touch-points, if when corrected can actually result in cascaded quantum value for the selling organisation.

Look keenly at the organisation of sales in your company then. Peek keenly at the nomenclature in vogue. Call everyone in your organisation a sales entity then. Bring in the `S' word with pride into the designation and job profiles of everyone in your organisation. Call them all together and celebrate your sales successes. Remember, each of them, starting with the office peon to the guy who mans the kitchen has been equally responsible in creating the cascade of sale.

And don't stop at that. Incentivise everyone in the organisation based on the sale volume or value your organisation commands every quarter. The salesperson in the front will, of course, garner the most of this incentive, but as the distance to the selling process increases, the incentive will decrease. Nevertheless, everyone earns a part of what the enterprise makes on its sale. Money talks and money helps weave purpose here.

The CEO sitting right atop the pyramid of organisation needs to be a salesperson as well. She is indeed the ultimate salesperson of organisation. Sales must be a part of the designation description of your CEO. It helps vest the `S' word with the dignity it demands and deserves.

At the end of it all, sales is the one activity that is the purpose of organisation. Sales bring in the cash flow. Never mind whether you are a temple-trust, a modern multi-specialty hospital, a school at large or a company that sells dentures or dog biscuits. The purpose of the organisation is the sale.

Get your corporate organisation centric to the purpose of the sale. Get the `S' word going with gusto and reap the rewards that will follow.

(The author is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.)

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