In our industry we talk a lot about manuals, whether they are installation, programming, configuration, etc; but we do not have a sales manual as such. by Adhir J. Uzcategui
The security vendor's manual is emerging as a fundamental tool to achieve excellence in the management of the seller and, consequently, achieve greater profitability in today's security company.
In a security industry as complex and competitive as the current one, with new products with IP technology, with an increasingly aggressive competition and with constant technological innovations, what really makes the difference between success and failure is, without a doubt, the management of the sales team, because at the end of the day it is this that makes the dream of putting our products and solutions in the hands of customers a reality, thus contributing to the profitability of the security company.
In the security sales manual are the answers to these and other doubts, as it is a guide that allows the commercial team to be provided with the necessary tools to develop the skills they need. And it is that all the sellers of the company have to have the same discourse of both the company and its technological products, yes, adapted to their know-how and their ability to argue.
It is therefore a document that provides the seller with a methodology to optimally develop their work in the face of the usual tendency to carry out their activity impulsively, without setting some patterns of action.
In this sense, the manual is a tool of easy updating and permanently alive for a market as changing and dynamic as security and its technology, which allows us to know that we are really doing what we had planned.
And what content should it have?
Information of interest about the company: history, organizational chart, mission and corporate vision, and other aspects that allow a deeper knowledge of the company. Many companies make the mistake of thinking that the seller joins the same day that the company is incorporated into the market.
• Work tools for the commercial advisor, including information about their sales routes, objectives, functions, main future challenges and also elements that allow them to carry out their work in a more efficient and profitable way.
• Analysis of the market and the competition, knowing it and knowing what differentiates us from it, what are our main added values and our strengths.
• Information about customers: classification of the types of customers (A, B, C), including the operation to be followed with each one the different types of them. For this it is essential that the seller reflects in as much of the customer's data as possible in the file.
• Complete information of the products: it is essential that the seller has a deep knowledge of his portfolio of products in each area CCTV, Home Automation, Access and Fire Control and not only technically, but of benefits for the client and prices, to be able to base his presentation on solid arguments and to be able to respond to any objection that arises to the long of the sales process.
• Commercial policy: compliance with the objectives, billing, commissions, incentives, conditions and forms of payment. Everything must be collected to avoid the free interpretation that is sometimes done.
• Work methodology: planning of the sales process, mechanics before orders, installations or return of a product, summary of the commercial process step by step and commercial administrative process.
I am aware that the key lies not so much in knowing the tools, but in the way to apply them, hence the sales manual should not be considered as the ultimate goal, but as a means that allows the company to position itself strategically in the market and against the competition.
To put this document in the hands of the seller is to benefit him on a personal and professional level since he is offered, in an organized and joint way, the different rules, precise, concrete, and useful to successfully develop his professional work.
Our experience tells us that the security companies that have incorporated this tool into their commercial network have increased their sales, at least in their first year, between 12% and 15%.
Happy Sales!
* Adhir Uzcátegui is the general manager of Suntech Group, an extension of several electronic security equipment factories for Latin America. You can contact him by writing to the email [email protected]
