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Selling


In a way we are all busy negotiating and selling, consciously or not, on a daily basis, is it an argument, a personal position, a bank loan, an insurance policy, etc. The exercise of selling becomes more intricate and even more conscious whenever the sale is done under circumstances, which involve large interests and exchanges of money. The situation of the homeowner who negotiates a fire insurance policy with insurance agents is not different from the position of the agents themselves. Both want to reach the most convenient deal. However the insurance agent does the job several times a day on a year in year out basis. In other words, it is a salesman's job he is doing and his livelihood depends upon how well he performs his job, very probably in the eyes of his superiors at the company he represents.
Do you want to sell?
Well, this does not imply being dishonest or tricky. Try either approach and, sooner or later you won't be left with many customers. Even worse, your reputation, your job or your business will be at stake. The majority of salesmen are honest. A good salesman aims at reaching a win win situation, but he won't be able to sell anything unless there is, in the market, somebody called customer, who is willing to buy the product or the service he wants to sell. More hardship and tough work await the salesman who has to have recourse to elements of persuasion in order to sell products, concepts or services. In the first case the need to buy must be available and the sales conditions must suit both buyer and salesman. In the second, the salesman must make the case that such a need is fulfilled by the product or the service he sells even if the conditions are such that a compromise must be reached in order to close the sale. Lucky is the salesman of products the brand names of which are since long ago market leaders and therefore offer already a guarantee for a sale. The role of the salesman is confined basically to strengthening social contacts with buyers. In a more difficult situation are those who find themselves queuing, alongside their competitors outside the office of purchasing managers. Spot sales require salesmen with more heart for the job, because once a sale is accomplished, their task starts from square one, endless times, over and over again. Tales of salesmen who can sell anything pop up quite often in discussions where exuberance reigns. Such tales require an appreciable pinch of salt to be believed. To the above, all round, salesmen one can add the big deal salesmen i.e. those who have more than enough cash to persuade others to sell companies or join a team of companies to start up new investments. In such circumstances, the following equation stands: no cash no sale and the more the cash the more grandiose the deal.
Let us consider a few examples of sales deals:
1-Selling rubber, thermoplastic or thermoset compounds or systems.
If you are a salesman or a sales supervisor, manager or director, the options that lie ahead of you are not infinite. They consist of either acquiring a share in an existing business or developing a new business in cooperation with your potential customer and on this basis, sell the product your company's colleagues in R&D and technical service, will develop for this particular application, quite often in cooperation with the customer. In some circumstances you may come across businessmen who are willing to invest in a production unit and ask for your help from the very beginning of the venture. The easiest strategy to follow in case you want a share of an existing business is to reduce the price of your product. By doing so you increase the profit margins of your potential customer at the expense of your own company's turnover. Even if you don't care about the efforts your competitors have put into the price negotiations and, still wish to gain a share of the business by breaking the prices, they will in turn come with a way of retrieving what they might regard as the fruit of their own efforts and a part of their core business. Strategies like, starting with a low bid to enter first the business and, then increase the price slowly at a later stage, are speculative approaches and may never lead to price increases. On the other hand, complaining about the competitors' low prices, defending the buyer's own story to reduce price, rejecting your own product for its high price, won't lead to a solution. A component of the salesman's job is to sell his case within his own company too and find a way to trace the reasons why his product sells at a high price. If his investigation is correct, it may lead to cutting the costs as well as suppressing the reasons, which cause the price to increase. The best approach lies in coming up with a product the technology of which supersedes that of competitors and offers a potential customer economical incentives as well as technical advantages. Those advantages are never obvious in the eyes of buyers of centralised economies. They are only attracted by the price of the lowest bidder. Good contacts with the administrators and even better price offers are the key to winning an offer. Nonetheless, excellent relationships with the, supposedly customers of the central purchasing agency can contribute to exercising a pressure to the central purchasing agency. This exercise is, in a way, reflected by sales visits to companies in free economies. The purchase department must not be the only contact the salesman has. Contacts must be generated at the highest possible level within the technical, production, marketing and R&D departments too. The sale constitutes a share of the core business when the product is sold on a continuous basis. Therefore the follow up must consist in servicing it as well as developing it. If you do not do it your competitors will.
2- Selling commodity plastics and polymers
You certainly have to have a network of good contacts in addition to being backed by a whole organisational mechanism, to convince a potential customer that your company is reliable. Quite often the materials are required yesterday. Your persuasion power as well as your company's organisation must be at least efficient to provide your customer with what he wants. If you cannot, a line of predators from your competitors' sales force will be awaiting for a share, a chunk or even better, the whole business, which is at stake. Once you lose it, it will be quite hard to regain it and even harder if your relationship with your former customer breaks down. The management of such situations is the trade mark of a good salesman. In any event do not hesitate to ask your customer why he is in a hurry and if he is bound by a contract with his own customer you may contribute to the costs. A good strategy is needed to keep your customer. His business is also a part of your core business in other word the business, your company's turnover depends upon, to pay for salaries, R&D expenses, production, marketing costs, as well as debts. The loss of such business shifts you away from your sales budget which you will try to attain by closing other businesses. We can go further by saying that the more businesses are lost the closer the company's books shift to the red and, eventually among other effects, its market value decreases. The situation described above clearly suggests that it is better to include in your core business, a group of small customers rather than rely on the purchases of a few large customers. When one or more of the latter are lost, an appreciable share of the core business disappears.
3-The big deal salesman and the shopper
Ambitious employees would, certainly wish to reach a level, where the job responsibility includes making big deals leading to joint ventures and acquisitions. The financial press includes almost on a daily basis, stories on such deals. The latter are not the prerogatives of large companies only. However, whenever the capital involved to reaching a deal is large, the bigger is the size of the companies concerned. The acquisition of small companies by large ones is common practice. The opposite case, even if unusual, can also happen if the necessary capital can be found. This, in general happens, whenever, banks are willing to cooperate. Such a cooperation is of course much easier when companies with big names are involved. In most cases, the same trend stands for companies getting together to set up a joint venture. It is obvious why big names attract each other. The executive, who is in charge of closing such a deal, is not greater than the name of the company he represents. In fact it is the name of the company, which opens the doors. The executive's capacities are first of all portrayed, in his ability to reaching such a position by spotting persons who can promote him within his own company. His ability to spot and follow those who are on the rise is a skill, which pays off. Remarkable achievements quite often are not as important as the ability to move within a company from strategic to strategic assignments by doing a reasonably good job. Much more difficult is the role of the entrepreneur who starts up his own company and has to approach several banks in order to raise capital, either to invest in his business or to acquire a company that may fit in his business. Good contacts as well as a business that generates cash and is viable in the bankers' eyes are needed. As long as the first step proves to be successful, the rest becomes easier. The shopping spree can go on indefinitely, with the help of sound accounting, risk taking which pays off, and, a good share of luck.

For comments, contact Dr Demosthenes Kyriacos, President,
GEM-Chem, E-mail: dk@GEM-Chem.net ; or phone +32-2-7710649
D.Kyriacos has worked at Upjohn, GE and ICI in international TS, Sales and Marketing. He holds a B.Sc.(Distinction, Honours, Univ. award of Chemistry) from Alexandria, a M.Sc.course,(ICI scholarship award) in Polymer Technology and, a Ph.D. from Loughborough (UK) as well as a MBA (excellent, corresp.USA).
D. Kyriacos is the founder of DK Business Group and GEM-Chem.

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