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Name: Ujjawal Ranjan

IUD No: 0901202606

Course Code: SLMM606

Course Name: Sales & Distribution Management

Faculty Name: Prof.Shailendra Dasari

Date of submission: 12/07/2010

Topic of the Assignment: Required skill sets and personal

characteristics of sales people

Student͛s Signature Faculty͛s Signature

 Declaration

I Ujjawal Ranjan hereby declare that the assignment entitled ³Required skill sets
and personal characteristics of sales people´ submitted to ICFAI Business
School, Bangalore in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the MBA Program
is an original and bonafide work done by me.

And also I hereby declare that this work is not my SIP work.

Ujjawal Ranjan
0901202606
ÿ
S-Do the required skill sets and personal characteristics of sales people
vary from industry to industry?

ANS-Yes, the personal characteristics and skill set vary from industry to industry.

The personal characteristics vary from individual to individual. So personal characteristics of

sales person also varies from individual to individual. Some sales person may be very confident,
so due to his confidence client may accept the proposal. Some sales person may be committed to
excellence, for them ethical value and hard work will lead them to success.

As the personal characteristics vary, so as the skills also vary. The various personal skills like
Discipline, Cooperation and Creativity may vary for various individual. It is also very much
important for any sales people to innovate the new idea for selling. This skill helps them in
becoming the leader.

ÿ
S-I. What according to you are the special skills/characteristics to be

possessed by sales persons hired by the following companies?

ANS- Customer sophistication, fierce competition, commoditization, price obsession,

complex sales cycles, globalization and changes in buying behaviors are the major challenges
faced by the company. Even in the face of these challenges, new sales opportunities are pursued
and won. To capitalize on these possibilities, a salesperson must have superior selling skills²
skills that build customer trust and differentiate you from your competitors.

Responsibilities of the sales person or sales executive-

1. Develop short term and long term sales objectives through effective use of sales data.

2. Application of structured selling process and negotiation techniques to achieve the business
targets.

3. Monitor hygiene in documentation, adherence to visibility templates etc.

4. Manage Distributor infrastructure (ROI, Coverage, Delivery Units, Godown Management, and
Credit in Market etc).

5. Ensure closure to grievances immediately.

6. Ensure adherence to stock policy in trade.

7. Developing customer organization.

The above points help in achieving the goal of the organization and also in improving the
customer relation.

The special skills/characteristics to be possessed by sales person hired by the following

company¶s are-

A. Personal care division of H -

To manage the selling-in-process and deliver business results through the Distributor and his
team the sales person should required the basic idea of selling like convincing and pitching right
customer, developing good relation. As there are many products in Personal Care segment and
many company are involved in the manufacturing of Personal Care Product, so salesperson
should target the store and end user by giving the product specification and why the particular
product is better then the competitor¶s product. For this sales person should posses¶ good product
knowledge both of his company and also of the competitor, which can help them to target the
client easily. They have to take aggressive sales strategies to sell their personal care product.
Relation should be made with distributor in such a way that they always go for your product and
not your competitor¶s product. This cooperation with distributor will help them to capture the
market.

B. nited Breweries
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C.ICICI-Prudential Insurance Company

The most creative way is used here to sell the insurance product. The salespeople are usually
dealing with customers who are unaware of their need for the service or product, and so, the
salespeople must possess the most refined selling skills. Sales person should make them
understand that, why one should go for insurance. They should also pitch them that this is the
part of investment in which they will get good return. Here sales person have to do follow up
regularly and pitch the customer to invest. In this type of selling convincing power of sales
executive should be high to get prospect lead to be converted for sales.

D. Hindustan atex
Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL) India¶s leading manufacturers and marketers of contraceptive,
Health Care and Pharma products is a Mini Ratna Company. The sales executive is called as the
Medical Representative. They are the person who involved in marketing and selling of products.
The marketing is done through various doctors who take the medicine from them. So it is very
much essential for sales executive or medical representative to build a good relation with the
doctors. They have to always meet them and communicate about the new product of the
company.

.JSW Steel td

In this type of technical selling generally technical person like engineers are hired. They are
called as Sales Engineer. Sales engineers provide technical support, explain the products, and
adapt the product to the customer's needs. They have good technical knowledge, which help
them to market the product easily. They can also advice customer on technical knowledge. A
technical sales engineer combine¶s technical knowledge with sales skills. The emphasis of the
work varies depending on the level of technical knowledge needed to sell products and services
and respond effectively to clients¶ queries. Clients are usually technical staff from non-retail
organizations.

ÿ
S-ii. Are women suitable for sales jobs in the above organizations?
Justify your response.
ANS- YES women are suitable for sales job. Women increasingly see a career in sales as one of
the best ways into top tier management, with two-thirds believing it gives them the same chance
of progressing to a senior position as their male colleagues. Sales and Marketing roles uniquely
position women to directly quantify their results compared to their male counterparts with many
women believing that their intuitiveness, empathy for others needs and their ability to form
strong relationships give them an advantage over males. As a result many women in Sales and
Marketing roles report that they find their careers to be more fulfilling, flexible and financially
lucrative than other industries.

In a survey in which it is shown that women wish list for the top ten most desired sales careers to
be:

á. Pharmaceutical Sales
2. Biotech Sales
3. Dental Sales
4. Insurance Sales
5. Healthcare Sales
6. IT Sales
7. Medical Sales
8. Advertising Sales
9. Medical Equipment Sales
á . Real Estate Sales

ÿ
S-iii.Apart from personal interviews is there any other ways to ascertain

the suitability of a prospective candidate for a sales job in each of the above
companies?
ANS- The other way to obtain prospective candidate apart from Interview are-

à External Recruitment ± Recruiting the candidates by their resumes forwarded by them

itself

à Referral recruitment ± Candidates recruited by the contact of the person who is already
the employee of that particular organization

à Internal recruitment ± The appraisal of the existing employees of organization according

to their performance

à Rehiring ± The hiring of the candidates who was previously working in the organization,
but left due to some reason, but then now rehiring them back for the specific position that
will be suitable for them

à Pouching ± Pulling the employees of other organization but of the same industry into our
industry
à Campus recruitment ± Companies visit the colleges that they target for their
organizational growth. They go to colleges and put their criteria for selection and takes
interview of the students and conducts GD and tests and then selects the best among
them, whom they consider is perfect for the required post.

à Recruitment via telecalls ± By getting the database of the candidates, the organization HR
dept make calls to the candidate and call them for recruitment procedure to the company
if they are looking for a new job, or looking for a change in job.

à Recruitment via internet ± According to the company vacancy and profile, search for that
specific profile on monster.com.