Love your sales life — an encouragement that includes ’love’ and ’sales’ in one sentence! Now that is something that you don’t see every day of the week.

The debate continues as to whether recruitment has moved into an era where a consultative rather than a sales approach is de rigueur in opening, and then developing, lasting and robust client relationships.

It is a ’chicken and egg’ conundrum.

Enduring business relationships are built upon one absolute irrefutable platform – TRUST.  And if we openly accept that ’people buy people’ – and we should – then we must also accept that trust can only truly be developed through personal relationships.

The ’S’ word

You know the moment that the dreaded ’sales’ word is uttered, colleagues often hide behind tasks that suddenly take on a new and urgent level of priority.

Sales can conjure up images of fruitless short conversations, confusion, meaningless direction, disappointment and rejection.

Of course the fact remains that we cannot adopt a consultative approach with our clients unless we contrive a method of meeting them in the first instance to commence an initial dialogue.

There is no escaping the S word, no matter how much we may prefer to ignore it!

Direction and targets

How often have you reviewed what your ’perfect client’ looks like in direct relation to your clearly defined brand strategy?

How certain are you that everybody within your business clearly understands your cultural and operational USPs?

There are of course clear strategic choices to make dependant upon your resources, positioning, brand image, aspirations and capabilities.

If your business is all about establishing a ’high-touch’ consultative approach with clients, then are you seeking business with customers who share your ideals?

If your business is all about seeking premium margins in accord with your ’high-touch’ consultative approach with clients, are you focused upon clients who will pay you more in relation to your attention to detail and willingness to deliver an outstanding customised service?

What specific industry sectors are you focused upon? Vertical or horizontal sales strategies? SMEs or corporates? Geographies – which?

Questions, questions?

Define what you seek in terms of market penetration and our value proposition and communicate these strategies clearly to our colleagues to provide clarity and reduce the large world of potential sales targets to a manageable and distinct objective.

Consider these questions carefully:

·     What size of business should we focus upon? – Employee numbers; locations; turnover; profit.

Remember, the larger the client, the greater the depth of process and time spent in terms of winning the opportunity and then ultimately delivering the service required.

High volume opportunities will almost always equate to lower margins and commoditisation.

Conversely, low volume opportunities will equate to higher margins and a high-touch approach.

·     Which industry sectors should we be specialising in?

·     What are our candidate specialities? – Job titles; experience; qualifications; salary levels; expertise.

·     Are we seeking local or national opportunities?

·     What payment terms are we prepared to accept?

·     What on – costs are we prepared to absorb to deliver the service model required?

·     What SLAs and specific contractual terms do we deem acceptable including levels of indemnification and liabilities?

·     Does the target client treat their customers and suppliers well?

·     How does their credit rating check out – financially robust?

·     Does the client have a good reputation and enviable ethics?

·     Can we achieve acceptable margins?

Define your world – and communicate clearly

Ensure that your colleagues are very clear indeed about their target audience, and then train and coach them consistently and thoroughly to become ’experts selling to experts’ within your chosen markets.

What’s next once you have defined and conveyed your sales strategies?

Well, it is not an accident that the businesses in our industry that are so admired for their impressive success and enviable turnover and profit, have a strong and regimented sales culture deeply embedded into the very psyche of their daily existence.

It’s about imparting and training effective sales techniques and structures to your people and then establishing a competitive and motivational sales culture within the very fabric of your business.

Much more to follow on these critical subjects in future articles.

Love your sales life?

Definitely – once you know and understand your ’perfect client’ template beyond any reasonable doubt and you stay true to your convictions.

Passion sells and an absolute belief in your product offering with an accompanying burgeoning sales pipeline brings a deep and warm sense of fulfilment, excitement and of course achievement.

Increased sales equate to greater success, and we all know that nothing breeds success, like success!

Paul Jacobs is managing director of LoveWorkLife. E-mail: [email protected]. M: +44 (0)7960 550756