Who is the sales?

David Packard, the late CEO of Hewlett Packard, said: Marketing is too important to be done by the marketing department alone. Many companies also realize that it is not just the marketing department, sales staff, and customer staff who are doing marketing. Every employee who has contact with customers should pay attention to marketing. As an important part of the marketing strategy, sales is no longer just a matter of sales staff, but requires the full cooperation of the upstream and downstream departments of the enterprise. For example, Ren Yong, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan, said in a recent interview with the media that Dongfeng Nissan is sprinting towards the million-dollar sales target, but it cannot lose its rhythm because of its large scale, long product line and too many personnel. The implementation of the regional reform of the marketing system this year is to move the command forward and grasp the changes in the market in a more timely manner. The core of the regional system is to decentralize power, promote the integration of cross-departmental resources, and speed up the response to the market.

So, how to make all departments of the enterprise cooperate sincerely to jointly promote the achievement of the marketing strategy? What are the similarities and differences in the functions and roles of "sales personnel" in different situations? How to effectively play the role of different types of "salespeople"? On these topics, the reporter interviewed Jiang Ruxiang, chairman of Beijing Xien Consulting Co., Ltd., Lin Shimin, head of China business of I-PEX, and Du Xi, general manager of Fiyta Sales Company. opinion.

Under the command of the marketing strategy, everyone is a seller

In an enterprise, a salesperson is a person who undertakes clear sales tasks and sales goals in the sales department. But to the customer, everyone in the business may be a salesperson. What do you think of this view?

Jiang Ruxiang: Management guru Peter Drucker said more than 30 years ago that a business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. At a strategic level, marketing creates not only products but also values. For example, the Coca-Cola Company not only created carbonated beverages, but also created the values of youth and vitality. It has long become synonymous with the youthful and energetic American culture.

At a tactical level, leaders and employees at all levels have different divisions of marketing. Leaders do the right thing. And the executives and front-line employees must do the right thing. The former makes marketing decisions and the latter makes marketing execution.

Marketing is the most important responsibility of business leaders. Senior leaders have to answer, what is the right thing to do. The right values are a prerequisite for making the right decisions. Either it's selling well or it's the right thing to do. It's all about sales, which leads a lot of leaders to do the wrong thing. For example, Mengniu Dairy's success in marketing is undeniable, but the marketing has done too well, and the management of product quality has been neglected.

Du Xi: At FIYTA, our pursuit is to create value for customers. Fiyta's philosophy is: good products and brand culture attract consumers and form high customer loyalty. We emphasize that whether it is sales staff, or human resources, finance, and administrative staff, they must create value for customers. For example, media specialists, who have good media relations, attract more media attention to the FIYTA brand, and introduce the latest products and brand culture to consumers in a timely manner. This is to create value for customers.

If employees sincerely want to create value for customers, they will definitely make customers have more preferences, which will directly drive the sales of FIYTA watches. Obviously, in such a virtuous sales cycle, if a blunt promotion is inserted, it will have side effects.

Lin Shimin: Apex Electronics is a Japanese-funded company that has been doing business in Shanghai for 10 years. I came to Shanghai in 2006 as the head of the China business of Apex Electronics. My goal in coming to Shanghai is to help the Japanese head office develop the Chinese market.

If sales are defined as selling products, then all departments of Shanghai Aipei Electronics are ultimately selling products. Business Sales, Electronic Engineers, Business Assistants, Quality Assurance, Finance, Human Resources are all hired for sales activities. On the front line are sales staff and electronic engineers, who go to develop the market, and follow-up staff support the execution and completion of orders.

As the China business leader, my job is to help businesses sell successfully and help them win business opportunities.

Culture and processes allow people to form a joint sales force

Marketing is a value transfer process. For the downstream departments of the enterprise, colleagues in the upstream departments may also be sales personnel. Even corporate executives and ordinary employees play different sales roles. Please give an example of how to make sales staff at different levels form a joint force to achieve the maximum marketing effect.

Jiang Ruxiang: I admire Haidilao, its "customer value" is well done. When peers desperately emphasized "special tastes", Haidilao innovatively included services from other industries into the scope of free services: for example, Internet cafe services and teahouse services were provided to the guests waiting for a seat, so that the torturous "waiting for a seat" service was provided. "Become a kind of enjoyment; such as ordering noodles, you can enjoy the juggling that is only available in the theater; even the mobile phone has a transparent mobile phone cover to help you put it on, so as not to be polluted by the soup.

Afterwards, I had an exchange with Zhang Yong, the president of Haidilao. The most impressive sentence in this meeting was that Zhang Yong sincerely told me that the core of Haidilao's development still depends on the system and the process, not exactly the "service" that everyone is boasting about.

For employees to serve customers from the heart, Haidilao starts with specific systems and processes such as selection and hiring of employees, respect of management for employees, and promotion of internal employees. The company has established a transfer system, and all employees are brought from Sichuan. Most of the newly recruited employees are acquaintances and relatives of the current employees. If one person does not do well, everyone will be affected. If you don't do it well, it will affect your face in front of acquaintances. The company allows employees to live in air-conditioned rooms, and allows employees to travel, so that employees feel very dignified. Give employees autonomy to serve customers. Promote insiders, and give priority to employee needs in terms of benefits.

Haidilao allows us to re-understand the workers at the bottom. These common values are rarely spoken and made. This is Haidilao's biggest marketing.

Lin Shimin: I think a good sales team and a good company must have a good atmosphere. Six years ago, when I first arrived at the Shanghai headquarters of Apex Electronics China, I felt that it was an indifferent company. Everyone only cared about themselves and would not share good information. Once a business salesman wanted me to help him contact the customer, but another business colleague found out about it and ran to my office and stared at the colleague in front: This customer is mine, how can you share it with me?

As the head of the China business, my main job is to build a trustworthy team. Teams with high transparency have high levels of trust, and the process of building them is not easy. In order to win the trust of subordinates, company executives must be consistent with their words and deeds. Starting from the supervisor, I asked employees to go to work at 8:45, so I could not be late, and if I asked for public property to be shared, I could not take the company's cup home for use. We help disparate salespeople work together functionally and process. We mainly sell coaxial connectors and RF connectors. The sales staff are connected with R&D engineers from major companies in the notebook computer, smart phone and other industries. As a sales company of electronic components, customers generally care about the design capabilities of manufacturers. Provide stable quality products and services.

For example, the design of Beijing sales and electronic engineers attracts customers to place orders, but in the end, Shenzhen business assistants may take orders. Who is the performance? The employees in Beijing deserve the most credit, but the performance falls in Shenzhen, which is unfair to the employees in Beijing. We measure employee performance by how many customers we design to attract. For cross-regional sales, we have regular weekly conference calls and quarterly face-to-face meetings. What I ask of my employees: Speed, Motivation, Mastery, Transparency, Customer Satisfaction. As a leader, I often tell everyone about the company's development and customers. Teams with high transparency have high trust.

Du Xi: In 2011, the domestic sales of FIYTA watches increased by 74% compared with 2010. The competition in the domestic watch market is fierce, and we are not inclined to say that it is all the result of the efforts of the sales department. Behind the sales growth is the improvement of all elements of the brand. The two cornerstones of our work are product + marketing. When these two tasks are done well, sales work and channel work are even more powerful.

Fiyta has several main departments around the brand: a sales company responsible for brand promotion and sales, a manufacturing company responsible for manufacturing and inspection, as well as a research and development department and a design department. Each year, the product planning is composed of cross-departmental teams drawn from these departments, with the cooperation of external research companies to first analyze the market, consumer groups and competition, and then combine brand positioning, brand development and brand R&D planning to launch an annual product plan. Cross-departmental joint meetings are promoted to ensure the formulation and implementation of new product launch plans and brand communication plans.

Fiyta is targeting mid-to-high-end watches with urban population as its core target customers. Attract urban young people aged 20-35 who are aggressive, love life, confident and have independent opinions. They are willing to accept new things, pursue a quality life, do not follow trends, and have their own independent opinions on fashion.

Fiyta endows its products with such connotations. The inner spirit of its different series of products is in the same line: enterprising and innovative. Aerospace series uses the technical level to express enterprising and innovation. Behind it is that human beings have the dream of flying since ancient times. It is also beyond its own limitations and explores the unknown world; the photographer series, without complicated technology, focuses on the interpretation of lifestyle, and pays attention to consumers who like travel, photography, movies and social interaction.

We also pay special attention to the importance of communication, including communication with media, partners, and customers, to comprehensively enhance the communication of the brand.

Sales incentives should be linked to customer satisfaction

How to set performance indicators to ensure that salespeople's work is consistent with the company's marketing strategy?

Jiang Ruxiang: In terms of management, employees' sales, service and incentives are directly linked, which is a big problem. Sales incentives are a double-edged sword for salespeople. Sales incentives can motivate salespeople to sell, but they can also motivate salespeople to rush for quick success.

The correct approach is to lower the proportion of sales staff incentive system linked to sales volume and increase the proportion of customer feedback system. For example, if you serve customers well, customers will be grateful to the employees of the company, and customer loyalty will be high. In measuring customer satisfaction, many companies are doing institutionalized systems. China Mobile's 10086 return visit will allow customers to give feedback on the services it provides in a timely manner. Ctrip.com and China Merchants Bank do this. Use an institutionalized system to allow customers to provide feedback on products and services. With the improvement of the service system, customers will gain direct benefits in the long run.

Du Xi: In Fiyta, the performance evaluation of front-line sales personnel, in addition to sales-related performance indicators, there are also action indicators at the customer perception level. Headquarters personnel prefer 360-degree evaluation.

Even a front-line salesperson, a considerable part of our evaluation indicators is to evaluate the completion of his key actions, that is, action indicators, which are the indicators that really drive the improvement of customer satisfaction and the achievement of performance. For example, we go to assess the channel, give a score to the channel status, and see whether the position of FIYTA watch has improved in this channel, whether the sales have become better, how is the customer perception, the placement of the promotional posters on the sales site, and the salesperson's introduction to the brand culture and brand products, whether the communication is in place.

At the same time, we will also assess the financial indicators of front-line sales staff, such as revenue and gross profit margin. Through comprehensive indicators to judge the level of customer service of front-line employees, the effectiveness of these assessments can truly be perceived by customers.

How to do sales incentives?

Jiang Ruxiang: Good sales incentives should be placed on three points: one is to cultivate people, cultivate subordinates, cultivate surrounding colleagues, and let them make good performances, thereby driving your performance. This is a good system design. Second, encourage salespeople to sell products, not only at the material level, but also at the spiritual level. This is also what we advocate for brand sales. Third, in terms of incentives, Chinese companies will go to the level of team incentives, that is, how to connect the sales system with team incentives and team growth.

Lin Shimin: In Apex Electronics China, sales executives at all levels are responsible for helping sales team members grow. We reward sales teams not only by sales amount, but also by customer satisfaction. If you're constantly in trouble, you're not serving customers well. For example, for Lenovo's service, Shenzhen Lenovo, Beijing Lenovo, and Shanghai Lenovo all have different colleagues to deal with. We have established a transparent cultural atmosphere, and let the business sales and business assistants serving Lenovo become a sharing team and appreciate the results of the business. Share the process, not the amount.

Du Xi: In FIYTA, each branch manager conducts centralized training for front-line employees at least twice a month, and the HR department has a special training team to train the staff of branches across the country. Around some holidays, FIYTA will carry out sales competitions for branches across the country. Department managers do not get bonuses, but 30% of them are used as team training funds to continuously improve the quality of training.

In terms of team motivation, we emphasize team culture, 360-degree assessment of the department manager, team members, external customers and leaders to score him, and make a comprehensive judgment on him.