Table of Contents

10 Ps of  Sales

If you are in the sales profession, you need to follow the top 10 Ps of sales. It is exclusively my view on my own experience and observation.

I can recall my first ever published article in a printed magazine on 3Ps, when I was in the juncture of tween & teen. I wrote what are the 3Ps most important for India. These 3Ps were Population, Poverty and Pollution. Somehow, we could manage the middle one to some extent but the first and last have even become bigger issues today after almost a half-century passed. Anyway, this is not the subject here but  10 Ps of Sales.

You must come across 3Ps or 4Ps in Sales. There are plenty of articles you can Google but those are mostly focused lower lower-impact matters like People-Personalisation-Privacy or Product-People-Policy.

But here I captured mostly out of the box concept, covering all important aspects a salesperson should follow.  This is to pave the success path of a sales and marketing profession at all levels by following it sincerely.

Let me explain one by one.

1. PRODUCT:

No need to discuss much on this first point. One of the reasons is that it is not in your hands. The other reason is the product should have good saleability as otherwise it can not give the true result of good work. If the product saleability is very poor then people with extraordinary calibre can do something good but get frustrated and leave the organisation (they rightly give up). The reason being they can be more successful with better products.

However, never expect the product is the best one. If it is the best product probably your requirement is less valuable (this can be contradictory). Also the company’s expectations also too high not considering the other factors. Product on an average at the top or mid-level is a good balance.

Here I am considering Consultative selling only and not short-term Transactional Selling like price selling and content selling.

2. PRICE:

Price is an important aspect, especially in developing countries where tender, three quotations type of old days practices are mandatory for the selection of a product.

However, expecting the lowest prices, best specification and best services is an expectation that the company needs to do all and sales salesperson obliges the company giving his/her services without proper learning of his/her required qualities. They always live with excuses finding all negative, instead of learning how they can overcome the challenges.

Ironically most expensive products are sold most, if not most but in higher volume than cheap products as per business volume.

A salesman need to learn how he can sell the feature of the product, convince customer on the product’s unique application etc (Read my article ‘Specification-features-end result’ for better understanding which I shall publish within a month in this blog as per plan).

The last point in this brief discussion, one should know how to present an apple-to-apple comparison to a customer. Here customer always tries to compare guava with apple and the poor salesman comes under pressure and starts throwing prices as an alternative to his/her lack of knowledge.  This will give you more clarity when you read ‘Positioning’ point below.

3. PROMOTION:

This is a joint responsibility of the marketing team as well as the salesperson. Whoever makes a mistake in the entire organisation, ultimately the sufferer is the salesperson. The reason is that salesperson performance is mostly judged quantitive manner by the numbers, i.e. Budget vs Achievements.

So, if the service team, marketing team, shipping, finance or any other department make mistakes they can find millions of reason or excuses but the salesman has only one indicator that he/she has failed to achieve the target.

Promotion is key to success. There are plenty of products manufactured by dozens or thousands of companies but important to reach the customer. The marketing team is supposed to do the promotion. In small companies, the salesperson itself does it, called direct promotion, as the boundary and volume in that case is not large.

I shall have separate articles on marketing/ promotion / social media marketing etc and you may visit from time to time to check it.

4. PLANNING:

Planning is one of the most important parts for a salesperson at all levels. For a frontline salesperson, it is important to plan the visit, plan the meeting. Planning travel and managing time with proper planning is important. To find out more about it you can read my article ‘Essential Sales Skills’ in this blog. There I explained what are the steps to follow to plan a meeting etc.

For sales managers planning is even more important. The efficiency of a team and its success have a high bearing on the planning skill of a sales manager. It is not only a skill but he/she should have the desire and inclination toward work with plan and coach the team to work with good planning. However, we see many sales managers do not have the skill or professional learning of how to plan and how much it is important for him/her and his/her team. As a result, firefighting, low efficiencies are the outcome for the team and even for the organisation.

We know that ‘No-Plan’ also a plan. ‘No-Plan’ is planning for failure.

5. POSITIONING:

Positioning of products is important. It has two aspects. In my view one is horizontal and the other is vertical.

Horizontal positioning means a product can serve several applications as well as there are several products for a particular application. So it is important to position a product that meets the purpose best for the particular application. It is true but partly true or ideally it is. Practically a salesman may need to see which product is most cost-effective and which can serve the purposes upto an acceptable level if not best. In such cases salesperson has the price advantage because ultimately price can be an important criterion when technical selection is over.

What is vertical positioning? Let me to explain it with an example of an instrument for better understanding. Usually, two companies never produce an instrument with the same level of specification. There is always a zigzag vertical level difference. Say, Company-X manufactures centrifuge with max rpm 15k and 25K and 30K RPM. The other one, Company-Y specification is 18K and 22K RPM. If a salesperson-Y can include 18K in the specification he may get price advantage as in this case X need to quote 20K model. If the salesperson-X can make it 20K then he/she may have price advantage as Y has to quote 22K model. This is a simple example to explain how to position your product and rest is on you to study such dozens of specifications of own and competitor’s products to win the race.

6. PRIORITIES:

Priorities have many dimensions. Priority to a customer, for a customer, of time, price, closing etc.  Also, the other dimension is the priority of a salesperson or the priority of the company to address.

One should critically decide what is his/her priority considering all these factors.

This article to touch upon as 10 Ps of sales and not to discuss at length. Reason is, this article is an eye-opener and if anyone finds it interesting he/she can gather more knowledge and apply in his/her work.

However, one simple example which often salesman makes mistake.  Suppose you have two prospects and have certain days for year closing. One is 5 lakh and the other is 80Lakh. 5 lakh is almost sure case and needs some push and 80 lakh has some opportunity to close but needs hard push. You have limited time. Which one you should push? Leave aside many if and but, in my view one should push 80L case. 5 Lakh probably not going to change the dynamics much but the 80L.

It is not only during closing. Salespersons should give priority to big-ticket items more as selling big can make a salesperson big as otherwise to float among many others. Give priority to ‘think deep-think Big’, my book available in amazon.

POLICY:

Most vital of the ‘10 Ps in Sales’  but often ignored as a part of sales skill. The salesperson must be an expert of policy matters. One of that is ‘Terms and conditions’ of the purchaser, seller, supplier, and manufacturers. As otherwise an order can be counterproductive for the organisation.

Also important to know the law of the land in case you are in an export business and import-export terms and conditions.

Become an expert of FCPA and ‘The UK Bribery Act’ is essential and an added qualification of a salesperson.

Last but not the least, do not bypass, make shortcuts or ignore any legal aspects.

For further interest, you can click the below links and learn.

1. U.S. Export Controls: http://www.bis.doc.gov/ and www.pmdtc.state.gov
2. U.S. Economic Sanctions: http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/
3. U.S. FCPA: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa/
4. OECD Antibribery Convention: http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34855_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
5. U.K. Bribery Act 2010: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/bribery-bill.htm

However, what I strongly believe company can not teach honesty to an employee. The companies just take care that for any individual’s wrongdoing company should not be in trouble. In my view, honesty comes from family learning. If anyone sees his seniors in the family dishonest, lie then the person never feels dishonesty is a crime but accumulates dozens of excuses to support it. In short, honesty is in the blood but if it is not, at least do not pull your organisation or seniors for one’s own defact.

8. POLITICS:

A salesperson should be a good politician. Some of you must be shocked hearing it as we usually hear that politics is the worst thing for any organisation.  It is true as we used to see the negative politics or dirty politics in office and know that only the politics.

I am not discussing this in detail here because I wrote an article ‘Office Politics’ on it in this blog which you can read.

One more thing salespersons need to take care. Our customers are not God. They have their own politics in their organisation, internal fight and leg pulling. Salespersons need not to get involved in that but should be aware of it and should know how to avoid it. Sometimes need to keep both paries happy. For example, in a given situation, the salesperson should keep the scientist satisfied with his/her sales skills and technical skills as well as maintain good relations with purchase people. As otherwise one of these groups can jeopardise the prospect inspite of his/her best work.

9. POLITE:

Do I need to explain it? Is not the word is not enough to understand?

A salesperson can face counterproductive behaviour, wrong attitude, arrogance at customer place or from other colleagues in his/her own organisation. However, he/she needs to be polite. Sometimes it is important to protest if the other side crosses their limit but with good logic (not argument) and never use any wrong words.

Here, I want to mention a very important matter. I learned from many of my junior female colleagues that it is without exception that they use to experience misconduct from many customers of the opposite gender.  In my view, they need not to keep politeness and protest strongly. I can assure you that you may achieve better return and respect from many others in the customer place or in your office, because of the simple reason, still there are majority of people are good, only minorities makes the environment dirty.

10. PRACTICE:

What to practice? The answer is, what not?

Do not trust your qualities too much. For any important matter, practice it before you act. Be it a meeting with a customer where you need to deliver all important aspects within a limited time, which may be a few minutes only. Practice what you are going to tell and note it down. Practice what can be a counter question from a customer and make the answer ready.

It is very important to practice when you are going to give a talk, or presentation or going to face a review meeting with senior management.

Also, I suggest, read the all 9 points above and practice that you are remembering all these 9 points and can repeat taking your eyes off from the screen.

Product-Price-Promotion-Planning-Positioning-Priorities-Policy-Politics-Polite-Practice

(Needless to mention that I referred to as ‘salesperson’ for anyone at all levels who’s responsibility is sales, be a frontline, mid-level manager or higher management. Most of the points are more or less applied to all).