No matter what B-schools teach you, or marketing workshops demonstrate or the best of the bestsellers express, nothing quite compensates for the on field experience when it comes to a sales job. One of my greatest fascinations has been the traffic signal salesmen, well salesBOYS or salesKIDS actually. The 'dudes' who tap on your car window when you are in the most frustrated state because you have just been stalled for a few seconds by the red signal (otherwise you would have gone and saved Rapunzel :P) and yet try and make a sale. Virtually anyone who has a flashy educational qualification from a fancy college, has a decent amount of work experience and has a few friends at high places to endorse anything that they say or write has written or is in the process of writing a book to throw general gyaan to the world. So if our SALESDUDE here were to write a book on Marketing I am pretty sure he will do a great job (without testimonials on the first page of course) and do an even better job of selling it :P. The following are the aspects that he would definitely have to cover, well in his own way.
Segmentation & Targeting - He knows his customers when he sees them. Pot-bellied, Paan chewing, post 50yrs dyed hair man on a scooter with 'Jai Maharashtra' stuck all over it is not his customer.
Positioning - The customers get just one glace at the books he is carrying. So his window of sale or the aperture is only for those few seconds. The SalesDUDE understanding this the best. He is left with only a pair of hands with which he works wonders with its positioning right from stacking them up right to displaying the titles at eye levels of the customers.
Product - Only the latest or the best of the best sellers are sold in his collection.
Price - Most of them don't work on a fixed price basis. He milks the ones who don't bother too much about price and whose eyes brighten up on seeing the book and has his bargain fights with the ones who just want to make a cheap quick buy.
Promotion - The promotion for all his products are already done by the original manufacturers or owners of the book. ;)
Place - It is very crucial for him to be in the right place at the right time.
Brand Building - Quickest service with the latest collections, the best deals is the only brand he will ever build.
Brand Obesity - It is important that he does not overload himseld with a variety of books. He has to pick and choose the right collections that the market needs.
Velocity - Unsold stock is his worst nightmare. So if and when he smells his stock piling up, he will sell it at a throw away price (perfect understanding of Fixed cost, variable cost blah blah)
Competition - He takes on the biggest players in the market. Be it online medium or the stores whatever be the discount they all require the customers to come to them but only in this case the SalesDUDE goes to the customer.
Appearance - However insensitive this might sound, the poorer he looks the better the chances of his making a sale. So the books that talk about 'Power Dressing' or bosses who insist on polished shoes and expensive suits to have an effect on the sale would be totally disproved.
His biggest challenge, his worst Boss -
The traffic signal... This is what makes his job the toughest sales job in the world. Quite simply because he has to manage his marketing (Segmentation, targeting and positing), his sales pitch, respond to customer's queries, fight the customer's dilemma, make the sale, deliver the product, collect the cash and return the exact change ALL BEFORE THE COUNTDOWN OF THE SIGNAL DROPS TO ZERO.
