The new era of selling

Thankx for the immense response being shown by you all. I will do my best to explain my points.
Here the question is being raised on two points:

Selling in core values of the organisation.
Branding and Selling.

The first one, i propose to have selling being developed as one of the core function of the organisation. The reason for this is:

Sales people know the best about the product as they regularly take the consumer feedback.
They continuously keep on working to increase the bottom line,come whatever they always take the increased target from the past.
They know the consumer best.
As they interact with other companys sales staff they also come to know what competitor is planning to do.

Now about the Branding aspect, the sales department or the sales force is just a silent observer to the positioning and branding strategies being developed. Its the sales people who are going to carry this to consumers, and in light of the above reasons, shouldnt the sales be involved in branding aspect.
Continuing, has any organisation till now proposed SALES as their positioning proposition? WHY NOT!!!!

What i look to achieve by getting the sales the deserved satus is recognition that we, the sales people, are the crux of the recognition involve us or wane out.
waiting for responses
Prakhar Gupta

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

The first one, i propose to have selling being developed as one of the core function of the organisation. The reason for this is:

Sales people know the best about the product as they regularly take the consumer feedback.
They continuously keep on working to increase the bottom line,come whatever they always take the increased target from the past.
They know the consumer best.
As they interact with other companys sales staff they also come to know what competitor is planning to do.

In practice I'm not convinced that these points are accurate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

Now about the Branding aspect, the sales department or the sales force is just a silent observer to the positioning and branding strategies being developed. Its the sales people who are going to carry this to consumers, and in light of the above reasons, shouldnt the sales be involved in branding aspect.

If "Branding" is about product/service image and association, outside of customary and standard pratices (customer service, professionalism, etc.) how would you suggest the "sales" be involved in the branding aspect?

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

Continuing, has any organisation till now proposed SALES as their positioning proposition? WHY NOT!!!!

If "Positioning" is a consumer perception how would you suggest sales be used as a "positioning proposition"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

What i look to achieve by getting the sales the deserved satus is recognition that we, the sales people, are the crux of the recognition involve us or wane out.

Sales people are valuable to an organization. How valuable? Who or which department is most important? Those questions might be best answered by the individual organizations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

....waiting for responses
Prakhar Gupta

Prakhar, I don't necessarily agree with your premises. What I do get from your posts is that you would like to see salespeople get more recognition and be given more leadership roles.

The ideal, I believe, is for those things to happen on the basis of merit and qualifications. There are many CEOs of companies who have risen through the sales ranks, so that type of occurence does happen.

Hi,Forum mates
Firstly sorry for being late.
Now, it depends how we look at the matter but in the end our aim is one to provide the much deserved position to the sales department.
Yeah there are number of organisations where the chief has raised to the position from the sales field. And this is the matter of pride this makes our job easy but the end which i want to propose doesnt stop here. sales is to become the central department which derives and supplies information to other deparments in the organisation.
Branding vs Selling
I find that most of the forum mates can not digest the fact that selling can be used for branding and this fear that it is not possible is to be over come.
I will collect my thoughts and come back on this forum in a moment.
Looking for your feedback.
Prakhar Gupta

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

Hi,Forum mates
sales is to become the central department which derives and supplies information to other deparments in the organisation.

That implies the sales "department" assuming a significant leadership and management role in the company.

It is not farfetched. For instance, the "owner" or CEO roles in a company are not necessarily defined by the titles. I know owner/presidents of companies who concentrate most of their personal efforts on inventory control. Others who spend most of their time on the accounting aspect. Others who lead the marketing for their company. Some who concentrate entirely on overseeing production. And--some who are the main force in conducting the sales and sale management of the company.

What you are looking for already exists in some companies. But it depends on the leadership and personel make-up of a company whether or not certain areas like branding and marketing would be assigned to "salespeople".

Is this the the kind of feedback that you want on this thread?

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakhar_nirma

I find that most of the forum mates can not digest the fact that selling can be used for branding and this fear that it is not possible is to be over come.

How are you defining "Branding" and how do you propose using "selling" for branding?

The main goal is always to *sell* your product or service and marketing is one aspect that helps you to achive that

Quote:

Originally Posted by SalesGuy

In practice I'm not convinced that these points are accurate.
Sales people are valuable to an organization. How valuable? Who or which department is most important? Those questions might be best answered by the individual organizations.

Nice answer SalesGuy,

I think as a company evolves, so does its emphasis and segregation of responsibilities.

Which function is more important, Sales or Marketing? It depends on where the company is looking to spend money at that particular stage in their development.

The new era of selling

Sales Forum