I am a sales person for a management services consultancy. Actually my official title is Business Development Manager, but in reality, I am a sales person – I sell my consultancy’s products and services in order to get new business for us. I feel “sales people” have been given a bad rap over a long period of time because we’re seen as always trying to scam or rip someone off.

But I never feel about sales in this way.

The reason I like to sell is because I actually like to BUY. To me, selling is just informing people of what is available to buy, and assisting them in understanding why they should consider purchasing that particular product or service over or with another. It’s about educating them as to the value of the product I am representing.
I quite often find myself pioneering new products or representing the unknown, so the challenge and exciting part of my job is learning about a new product or taking an unknown resource to market and seeing the growth of that product, rather than representing something that everyone already knows or understands.
Believing in and liking what I sell myself is always important to me, but in saying that, the biggest lesson I have learnt in sales is that just because it isn’t my taste or favourite thing, or what I perceive as suitable, doesn’t mean it isn’t to someone else. Therefore it is essential to give people the information about a product in the best possible light with the most relevant information regardless of my own needs, thoughts or opinion.

And that is what I now see as being the real challenge to successful sales - being truly unbiased with the best interest of the client AND prospective purchaser’s needs.

Finding the right product and getting the right outcomes is what I consider my real job as a sales person… not selling a product for the sake of a sale, but being almost like a research specialist rather than a sales person.

It is only through talking with the client and understanding what is important to that person that the correct product can be put forward. Without that understanding it is purely an off-the-shelf-sale, not a business development sale.

The discovery can be done by simply talking to the person and hearing what they have to say; there will always be certain key signals that will lead you to offer a certain product, yet carefully considered questions enable me to drill deeper and lead us in the right direction to ensure the suitable product is offered to the client with consideration of budget.

The ultimate outcome is the sale, of course, but unless the expectation of the client has been met within his or her budget, the sale is not a successful one; it’s purely a sale. Long term customer satisfaction, repeat business and referrals will only come from happy content clients.

I believe this is the role of a ‘business development manager…’ playing cupid with product and purchaser :)

Hayley Rhodes
Business Development Manager