Many students at SMS Varanasi wonder if a career in sales or going for MBA in Sales & Marketing is the right choice for them. This article aims to answer this question.

Sales is a very rewarding career that can be extremely lucrative if done correctly. From personalized customer service to the sales pitch, it’s all about understanding customers and making sure that their needs are met efficiently. This requires an appreciation of human behavior as well as technical skills to understand how best to market products or services.

A Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Sales & Marketing can provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in a sales career. You will learn how to develop an effective sales strategy, apply persuasive techniques, build customer relationships, understand consumer behavior, and use analytics and marketing tools. These skills are essential for any successful salesperson and can give you a competitive edge in the job market.

What is Sales?

If you are thinking of entering the sales line, you should undergo a brief description of what is sales and whether you are really suitable for it.

‘Sales’ is basically selling goods and services to customers with the aim of providing them with maximum satisfaction. Sales also help in generating more and more revenue.

When you see a salesperson in a movie, you might feel like that’s an easy job but when it comes to reality, a salesperson has to undergo a lot of things. Let us discuss a few basic points a person should have to be successful in the sales line.

Traits You Should Have to Be Successful in a Career in Sales

If you are considering whether MBA in Sales and Marketing is the right choice or not, you may want to notice the following:

• The Bargaining Game: When you go to a market, you yourself expect to get something at a discount. For example, everyone waits for a Diwali break or Independence Day so that lots and lots of offers may arrive and you could spend less and buy more.

But what about the other days? No matter what, a customer is always looking for a discount.

For example, our grandmothers know the price of vegetables AND they know the strategies to bargain. You may have noticed that even the vegetable seller gives up on her because she is so good at bargaining!

So you have to make sure that you won’t fall under the category of giving up. If the store has already given some particular discounts, you cannot give more than that, or else you would be going against the store policy and will get kicked out of the company for sure.

• Empathy: Many people mistake the word empathy for sympathy. Empathy and Sympathy are completely two different words and hold different meanings. To become a successful salesperson, you should be empathetic.

Empathy means understanding another’s person’s feelings. In the world of Sales, of course, you will meet many buyers who will try to have more discounts than expected. For them, you have to turn the tables and mold the situation in such a way that the buyers think you understand them and have already given them the maximum discount as compared to the other customers.

The biggest thing that works in empathy is being a good listener. When you are listening to the queries and doubts of the customers without arguing, they feel a pleasant atmosphere around them and that’s the time when you can toss the coin and win the game.

You always have to win the trust of the customers and sell them the products in a way that you attain maximum profits along with maximum customer satisfaction. So if you are empathetic, then a career in sales is definitely the field for you!

• Knowledge: For a salesperson, the mandatory rule is “complete knowledge of whatever you are selling”. You must have seen many individuals in life who come up with an agenda to buy that one particular thing – and before deciding on it, they already have researched everything, like the product details, specifications, price, warrant, etc. So you don’t have to define everything or anything to them.

While they seem to be easy customers, they are difficult to handle too. It’s because if there is any kind of store policy or something else regarding that particular product going against them, they know how to fight for it and attain it at the price they have thought of (the bargaining game). And in the end, they start backfiring about how accurate their knowledge is regarding the product and that you don’t have to teach them anything.

That’s the time you need to give them a counterstrike! Being a salesperson, you should always have complete knowledge – not the usual or basic knowledge but the overall knowledge of the product – and the policies of your store regarding it.

You should be perfect in your work. As they say, a salesperson should aim for ‘accuracy’.

• Optimism: At the end of the day, when a customer reaches his or her favorite product, he or she is already expecting you to have some good knowledge about it. But what if the salesperson is talking in a very rude manner? That could lead to a loss of customers.

When you are in the sales line, you have to keep your personal life and your work life separate. Because if you do not do that, it affects your work life which will lead to failure and sooner or later it will impact your personal life negatively as well.

You yourself would have noticed when you are shopping that if there is someone behaving in a rude manner, you don’t feel like buying the product. In fact, all your positive vibes change into negative ones. And you feel like switching stores. So in a sales line, one should be optimistic, and should always have a bright and dazzling smile on his or her face.

A customer also feels the warmth and feels that this outlet is surely trustable. Not just that, but a time may come when your ego might come in between. Obviously, we all are humans. Everyone has feelings and can get hurt easily. But you have to stay positive and accept such confrontations as challenges. You need to find ways to overcome them and not lose customers over silly bickering.

Conclusion

A salesperson’s life is also tough, but I guess that goes for every profession. The tagline for sales is “Profit maximization with maximum satisfaction of customers”.

Keeping this in mind, if you have the qualities like empathy, knowledge, and optimism then sales is surely a career for you. Always remember that customers are your ultimate profit makers so treat them well!

Good luck!