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  1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628664410576488209</id><updated>2024-03-08T05:42:20.422-08:00</updated><title type='text'>オフィスの伝説</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://legend-office.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://www.blogger.com/feeds/7628664410576488209/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://legend-office.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>djibouti</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12132891366186921132</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>1</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628664410576488209.post-8711948619719247649</id><published>2021-11-22T03:33:00.006-08:00</published><updated>2022-03-26T05:46:33.966-07:00</updated><title type='text'>What is the essence of sales?</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Sales is not just about the profits of the company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sales is not only about the profit of the company&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://slimtime.co.jp/&quot;&gt;https://slimtime.co.jp/&lt;/a&gt; , but also about the four objectives of sales activities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The four objectives are&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1) Good for the seller: Is it good for the salesperson (increase in sales, increase in profits, etc.)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(2) Buyer&#39;s good: Is it good for the customer, the buyer (productivity improvement, man-hour reduction, etc.)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(3) Good for the world: Is it good for the world (e.g., will it greatly affect the economy)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(3) Good for the public: Good for the world (e.g., large economic impact) (4) Good for stakeholders: Company associates, shareholders, and their families (e.g., large transactions, being able to support their families)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4) Good for the people involved: friends of the company, shareholders, and their families (large transactions, ability to support their families, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is important to note that we are not thinking only about our own sales or the company&#39;s profit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The more top salespeople you are, the more you will deal with customers with a &quot;buyer&#39;s good&quot; mindset.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The reason for this is that they believe that if they do not provide something good for the customer, they will not be able to experience the true joy of sales.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Top salespeople carry out their daily sales activities with &quot;customer satisfaction&quot; as their top priority.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, their own sales and profits are important, but they believe that without customer satisfaction, they will not be able to enjoy sales and profits, nor will they be able to experience the real thrill of sales: the sense of accomplishment, the trust of customers, and the value of their existence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pursuing only immediate sales and profits does not make top salespeople happy, but they feel great joy when their customers are satisfied and talk to them about various business issues with great trust.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The essence of sales is to maximize the time/economic value of the customer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is &quot;maximizing time/economic value&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It may sound difficult, but in essence, it means &quot;increasing profit and decreasing loss&quot; for customers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a customer&#39;s profit increases or cost decreases by using a particular product or service, the customer will buy (sell) that product or service.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, what salespeople need to think about is &quot;how to maximize the customer&#39;s profit and minimize the customer&#39;s cost.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How to maximize the time/economic value of the customer?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, how to &quot;maximize customer benefit and minimize cost&quot; is what I think everyone wants to know the most.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The answer is very simple: improve your ability to (1) listen (Input power) and (2) communicate (Output power).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of sales techniques, know-how, and how-to&#39;s out there, but if you polish these two skills, your sales ability will definitely improve.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1) If you improve your listening skills (Input), you will be able to understand what problems and issues your customers are facing, and (2) if you improve your communication skills (Output), you will be able to tell your customers how your products and services can solve their problems and issues, and how much your profits and expenses will increase and decrease as a result.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;absolute value&quot; of the products and services your company provides will not change. On the other hand, the &quot;relative value&quot; can be increased as much as possible by finding out the problems and issues of the customers and solving the &quot;equation&quot; of how to help them. The key to sales in the future will be how to solve this equation efficiently.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sales ability refers to all the abilities necessary for salespeople to conduct sales activities for new and existing customers, and to win contracts in the entire process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned above, it is often summed up in the term &quot;communication skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, many people may not have a clear idea of what communication skills are if they are explained only in terms of communication skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we break it down in detail, sales ability is defined as&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Human power&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Technical ability&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Management skills&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we break it down in detail, sales force is made up of the following four elements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I will now explain them in order!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Human power&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Human power in this context refers to the ability to be liked by others and the ability to act proactively to achieve one&#39;s goals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To give a concrete example, it is the ability to do the following&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Act with the customer&#39;s best interest in mind&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Acting proactively to achieve goals&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be able to act responsibly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be able to understand the needs of the customer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be able to make plans and take actions according to them&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Understand and report the situation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Able to look around and act accordingly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Able to keep promises&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you are a salesperson who can do these things, you will be trusted by your customers, and as a result, you will be able to win contracts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, this ability of human power is the foundation of sales ability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because it is the most important element, it is very difficult to acquire.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it is important to understand that it is not a skill that can be acquired immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On top of that, I think the best way to acquire people skills is to act in such a way that people like you, not only in business, but also in your daily life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Technical ability&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a nutshell, &quot;technical skills&quot; here refers to the ability to conduct sales activities efficiently.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To explain in detail, technical skills refer to the ability to communicate clearly and accurately to the other party, or the ability to negotiate without stressing the other party.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is often referred to as sales skills, but it is an ability that is relatively easy to acquire by learning techniques such as how to speak and listen in an easy-to-understand manner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I will explain about these sales skills later.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge skills&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No matter how much you improve your technical skills, it will be meaningless if you do not have enough knowledge within yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge ability here refers to the ability to know the following things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;the world&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Industry&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Customers&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Your company&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;products&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Business　　　&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowing a wide range of knowledge enables you to have in-depth conversations with customers and to accurately grasp their situations, so that you can make high-quality proposals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In particular, it is difficult to win a contract unless the salesperson knows the company&#39;s products and services as well as the customer best.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thinking ability&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The last factor is the ability to think.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thinking ability here refers to the ability to come up with concrete solutions to problems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, in sales activities, you need to be able to think through the process of winning a contract and solve your own problems and those of your customers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In rare cases, there are salespeople who have high thinking ability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, most salespeople do not have the ability to think clearly at the beginning, and I believe that the only way to acquire this ability is to learn through experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, let&#39;s say a person with no sales experience is given a sales activity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No matter how good their communication skills are, most of them will not be able to become a successful salesperson right away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is because they haven&#39;t mastered the ability to think.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What kind of process exists until you get a contract, how to overcome challenges, etc. are things that you learn through your own experiences and failures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, once you have mastered the ability to think as a salesperson, even if you are assigned to sell other products, you will be able to repeat your winning patterns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if you are given the task of selling other products, you will be able to repeat your own winning patterns, and I think this will work in many cases.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Differences between salespeople who can sell and salespeople who can&#39;t&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what is the difference between a salesperson who can sell and a salesperson who cannot sell?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I will focus on the things that successful salespeople do as a matter of course and explain them here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Characteristics of a successful salesperson&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are many things that successful salespeople do as a matter of course, but I will explain four of them here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They start with a conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When explaining to a customer or answering a question, they start with a conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In some cases, people feel pain in receiving explanations for things they do not understand without knowing the goal of the conversation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, when explaining a service to a customer, start with a conclusion such as, &quot;This service has the strength of ________. Therefore, when explaining a service to a customer, start with a conclusion such as, &quot;This service has the strength of ________.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a result, you will be able to win a contract.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Quick response and immediate action&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Successful salespeople are quick to respond, not only to customers but also to the company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One point to keep in mind here is that it is not necessary to give a 100% response immediately, but it is important to respond immediately, even if it is just a first response.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, if you can&#39;t answer or respond right now, you should first say, &quot;I understand. I&#39;ll check on it and respond within a few days. For example, &quot;I understand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By giving a first response, the other party will know that you are working on it, which will lead to trust.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is also important to set a deadline for your response.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if you get a response right away, if you don&#39;t know when you will get an official response, the customer will become worried.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Understand the above points and try to respond immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Make a clear decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you are making clear decisions, you will appear confident to others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many cases, a confident salesperson will be given a better impression than a salesperson who does not seem confident.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In some cases, it is better to clearly answer &quot;I don&#39;t know&quot; to something you don&#39;t understand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, as a prerequisite, only salespeople who have acquired the aforementioned &quot;knowledge ability&quot; can do so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, it is important to tell the other person, &quot;Even though I have a variety of knowledge, I take the position that I don&#39;t know about this event.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You&#39;re keeping a promise that isn&#39;t a promise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are many times when people make promises that are not promises without knowing it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A non-promise is the image of an &quot;oral promise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, important promises need to be communicated and kept, whether verbally or by e-mail.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, if it&#39;s a simple verbal promise made during a business meeting, it&#39;s easy for both parties to forget about it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Successful salespeople remember these non-promises and keep them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many cases, the customer forgets about it, but since it&#39;s something they&#39;re potentially worried about, it makes a very good impression. This can give a very good impression.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Characteristics of unsuccessful salespeople&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An unsuccessful salesperson is a salesperson who is not able to do what a successful salesperson does as a matter of course.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, they are not able to do the four things I mentioned above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They talk lazily and without seeing the goal, instead of starting from the conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They are slow to respond or react. Not setting deadlines.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Giving vague answers without making a clear decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not keeping promises that are not promises.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It would not be an exaggeration to say that such salespeople cannot sell.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What you should do to strengthen your sales force&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are three things you should do as an individual.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Learn sales skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are many techniques called sales skills in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By learning these sales skills, you can strengthen your sales ability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this article, I would like to introduce three of the many techniques.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pacing&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a technique where you observe how the other person speaks and their state of mind and adapt yourself to it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, if the other person is a fast talker, you can try to speed up the pace of conversation, or if the other person&#39;s voice is low, you can try to speak in a low tone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;People tend to unconsciously prefer people who are similar to themselves, so this is one of the most important techniques in sales.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Backtracking&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Japanese, this is called parroting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is a technique to summarize what the other person is saying by using the same words as much as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are three main points&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Use the &quot;facts&quot; of the other person&#39;s speech.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Return with the &quot;emotion&quot; of what the other person said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Summarize what the other person said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By backtracking, you can make the other person feel that you understand what they are saying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;PREP Method&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a technique that allows you to speak logically.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Point = conclusion, point&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reason = reason&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Example = Specific example&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Point = Conclusion, point&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The acronym for the above four is called the PREP method.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By learning this way of speaking, you will be able to communicate to others in a logical and easy-to-understand manner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Collect information&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to improve your knowledge, you need to collect information on a regular basis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are two ways to gather information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Collecting information from things&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This method involves collecting information from books, newspapers, and the Internet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In particular, it is a good idea to collect information about the industry of your potential customers, the latest information about your own industry, and current events.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Collect information from people&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gather information not only from colleagues, bosses, and other people within your company, but also from customers and other people outside your company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is not much technique involved here, so it is important to openly ask for what you are interested in.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition to collecting information, outputting it will enable you to use it as your own knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Try to become a salesperson who can give information to others as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have actual experience&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As with anything, there are many things that can only be learned through actual experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a salesperson, there are two main situations that you can experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sales to customers&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can be anything from a phone call to a business meeting to an email.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You will gain the most experience when you are selling to customers that may lead to a contract.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, learning something useful for your own sales in each interaction or business meeting will help you strengthen your sales skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conduct rope training&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Experience is not limited to customers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can also gain experience by doing rope drills within the company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By understanding and practicing what you have not been able to do in actual sales activities, you will be able to further improve your sales skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is necessary to use the PDCA cycle, not only to gain experience but also to see how you did in actual sales activities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Were you able to speak as you practiced? What are my issues? What was the result of implementing the hypothesis for the issue? Analyze these in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One important point to remember is that it is the experiences that go well that you need to look back on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many salespeople reflect on their failures and try to improve when things go wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, if you don&#39;t improve, you will never be able to improve your sales skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, when you are successful or doing well, it is important to reflect on why you were able to win the contract.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The more experiences you have, the more you will be able to find your own winning patterns in sales, and the closer you will be to becoming a successful salesperson.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What you should do to strengthen your sales force - Organization&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next, let&#39;s take a look at two things that organizations should do to improve their sales force.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Create an environment of equal growth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Create an environment where salespeople can grow spontaneously.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, if a supervisor does not give any work to unsuccessful salespeople and only gives work to salespeople who can sell, the unsuccessful salespeople will grow at a very slow pace.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, in order to achieve the immediate goal, it is better to leave the work to those who can do it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, when you think about it from a long-term perspective, if you can create an environment that allows equal growth and raise the level of the entire organization, you will be able to achieve your goals most efficiently.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Providing internal and external training is another way to create an environment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Improving the efficiency of sales activities&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Introduce systems and tools that will make the activities of each salesperson more efficient.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, introduce SFA tools to improve the efficiency of sales activities and make it easier for managers to manage them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To begin with, SFA stands for &quot;Sales Force Automation,&quot; which is a cloud-based &quot;sales support system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you can measure the efficiency of your sales activities by implementing these clouds and tools, you can use your free time to improve your sales force.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Related Business Blogs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://business-rules-paper.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;ビジネスの掟&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://business-highway.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;ビジネスハイウェイ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://business-lands.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;ビジネスランド&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://business-times-com.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;ビジネスタイムズ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://www.blogger.com/feeds/7628664410576488209/posts/default/8711948619719247649'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://www.blogger.com/feeds/7628664410576488209/posts/default/8711948619719247649'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://legend-office.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-post.html' title='What is the essence of sales?'/><author><name>djibouti</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12132891366186921132</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author></entry></feed>

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