TABLE OF CONTENT
I. WHO IS A SALES EXECUTIVE?
- Sales Executives are the direct connection between a company and its customers. They work closely with customers to resolve their needs, answer their questions concerning the business services and products, and suggest appropriate solutions. Their prime concern is to ensure maximum client satisfaction.
- Sales Executive sometimes serves as a consultant for customers who need advice when buying technical, technological, or novelty items. They have the ability to make a long-lasting pleasant impression on customers, motivating them to return for more products and a better shopping experience.
- Eventually, the duties of a Sales Executive are to acquire exceptional customer service while consistently meeting the store sales goals. Unlike the business development executives who focus on the strategy of selling certain product, Sales Executives sell the company’s product directly to the market.
- Here, we will be discussing about the roadmap to become Sales Executive in B2B and B2C verticals.
II. HOW MUCH A SALES EXECUTIVE EARNS?
Salary of a Sales Executive depends on various standards like the dynamic skills of an individual, experience, level of knowledge etc.
- Average salary of a fresher who joins as a Sales Executive is approximately Rs.2, 00,000 – 3, 00,000 per annum.
- Average salary of a person with an experience of 3-6 years in Sales is approximately Rs.3, 00,000 - 7, 00,000 per annum.
- Average salary of a person with an experience of 6-14 years in Sales is approximately Rs.7, 00,000 - 12, 00,000 per annum.
- Average salary of a person with an experience of 15+ years in Sales is approximately Rs.12, 00,000 and above per annum.
III. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SALES EXECUTIVE
B2B sales executives work for a company that sells to other businesses. They are involved in selling complex products and/or services to businesses. For example – Samsung supplies OLED displays to Apple.
If you are a B2B sales executive, you'll need to:
- Understand the needs of your business customers.
- Specify prospects, strengthen customer relationships, and recognize ways to boost the business sales figures.
- Do market and product research and learn more about target markets, consumers, and their competition in the market.
- Develop several reports. Depending on the industry you are working in, you will be required to create sales data, conversion reports, trends, length of sales cycles, etc.
- Present the product or service favorably and in a structured professional way face-to-face.
B2C sales executive works for a company that sells products/services to end-users. For example, Samsung supplies mobile phones/smart watch to people.
If you are a B2C sales executive, you’ll need to:
- Hear to customer requirements and propose appropriately to make a sale. Strengthen and develop relationships with existing clients in person and via telephone calls and emails.
- Cold call to negotiate meetings with possible customers to find new business.
- Reply to incoming email and phone queries.
- Act as a link between a firm and its current and potential customers. Reconcile the terms of a contract and close sales.
- Gather market and client information.
- Advise on future product expansions and discuss special promotions.
- Create elaborate proposal documents, often as part of a formal bidding process, which is largely dictated by the forthcoming customer.
- Keep a watch on number of goods on display and in stock.
- Maintain a revised and authentic understanding of all products and services on sale.
- Make precise, rapid cost calculations, and deliver customers with quotations.
- Stay up-to-date on the most current advancements and advertisements, informing clients about prices, discounts, and upgrades.
IV. SKILLS REQUIRED TO BECOME A B2B OR B2C SALES EXECUTIVE
Soft Skills:
Soft Skills generally gets little respect, but plays a significant role for a Sales Executive job role. Selling becomes much easier if you have good soft skills. Soft skills needed for Sales Executive job role are:
- Communication Skills: A Sales Executive should positively engage other people, make long-term relationships, and form mutually beneficial networks. All this requires excellent communication skills. Communication skills doesn’t only mean speaking fluently in English, but it also means ability to communicate your information properly orally or in written format in any required language. In B2B context, the language is mostly English but for B2C context language required can vary across companies.
- Listening Skills: As a sales executive, you need listening skills to sell more effectively. You should know how to use the information you gain after listening to someone. For example, in the B2B sales industry, you can use your clients' details to create your pitch.
- Research Skills: Sales Executive, especially in B2B sector, must research about the company, new clients and new ways to increase the sales. Avid Research skills can help you learn a lot about the company’s product line, industry updates, clients etc.
- Negotiation Skills: As a Sales Executive, you will often be required to negotiate pricing, offerings with customers. Possessing good negotiation skills will help you deal with customers seamlessly.
- Relationship Management: Sales comes with good relationships. A customer will buy your products only if they develop trust in you and your offerings. You can build trust by building strong relationship with them.
- Story Telling: People generally enjoy listening good stories. Your sales can become faster if you possess the capability of sharing stories around your offerings. For example, you can transform positive customer experiences into stories.
- Teamwork: A Sales Executive is often required to work with a team of members. Their job role requires them to set department goals for the team, individual quotas, and timelines for achieving these.
- Confident: A Sales Executive should have a positive, confident, and determined approach. Your confidence will help you bring sales for the company.
- Critical thinking: Sales Executives ought to think on their feet, study information, and respond accordingly to ever-changing conditions. Strong critical thinking is required while dealing with difficult customers.
- Creative Problem Solving: Sales associates are frequently required to resolve problems quickly and decisively. To have a flourishing career, you need to have a solution-oriented mindset and a creative approach to sales problems.
Technical Skills for B2B and B2C sector:
- Knowledge of Product: If you work as a sales executive, a deep and intensive knowledge of company offerings, services, and products is highly important.
- Social Selling: Social selling is one of the most useful skills you need to know as a sales executive. You can use social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., for prospecting and forming connections.
- Tech literacy: As a Sales Associate, you will often be required to work using a POS (point of sale) system, accounting software, Customer Relationship Management software etc. If you have a problem using the technical tools, you will struggle to perform well in your job.
- CRM: Proficiency in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a crucial skill for a sales executive. Numerous sales specialists count on their CRM to manage references and contracts.
Technical Skills Required Specifically for B2B sector:
- Presentation Software: In B2B sector, Sales Executive will often require to make presentations for multiple sales projects. In such case you will need knowledge of presentation software like PowerPoint, Prezi, Keynote, etc.
- Effective E-Mail Writing: One of the responsibilities of a B2B Sales Executive is to interact with clients for various purposes. Effective E-Mail writing skill is required for smooth communication and avoiding any misunderstanding.
- Account-Based Marketing: A more prevalent trend in the B2B sales background has to be account-based marketing. ABM is a process of targeting a set of clients within a market. You'll make more profits and draw new clients once you learn how to sell to customers as if they're the only ones in the market. You'll need to enhance your research to thrive with ABM marketing.
- Inbound Marketing: Inbound marketing is a good to have skill for a sales executive. It is a methodology to help customers find your company instead of you finding them. Some of the strategies used for Inbound Marketing are content marketing, blogs, SEO etc. A customer identified through this process possess buy motive. So, sales from customers identified through inbound marketing becomes easier
V. MINIMUM SKILLS REQUIRED FOR B2B AND B2C SALES EXECUTIVE
- Excellent Communication Skills
- Knowledge of CRM and POS
- Good with certain Presentation Software like MS PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.
- Effective E-Mail Writing Skills for B2B
- Strategic Planning and Problem-Solving Capability
VI. CERTIFICATIONS
- Certification courses can be a powerful means to ascertain employers you know your stuff.
- Numerous certifying organizations provide courses in fields like Sales Management, Business Accountant, Advertising Specialists, Security operations, etc.
- You can also consider getting certified in various skills mentioned in the above segment of the roadmap.
- Some of the certification courses you can choose from are mentioned below:
- Sales Associate Training Course
- Retail Sales Associate
- SMstudy®Corporate Sales Associate Certification Course
VII. INTERNSHIPS
- As a sales intern, you will be required to assist the manager and senior staff by completing administrative and entry-level duties while gaining experience.
- Various internships come with a promise of job offer. Thus, you can also secure a job for yourself through internships.
- Your job role will include work such as conducting research, making calls and sending emails, updating records, attending meetings, and helping maintain client relationships, among other tasks.
- The various internships you can choose among to apply for are:
VIII. GUIDE TO BECOME SALES ASSOCIATE (B2B AND B2C)
- Get your Education Qualification
- A career in sales does not demand any specific educational qualification.
- You can pursue your schooling in any subject of your choice and become a Sales Associate in the future.
- Graduation Degree
- Most of the Sales Associates own a Bachelor's Degree.
- The Majors during your graduation can vary and may not necessarily be the same.
- However, there are certain preferred degrees for becoming a Sales Associate.
- These are- Bachelors in Sales Associate, Business Management, Sales Management, Marketing etc.
- Diploma Courses
- Various colleges/universities provide valuable diploma courses in business and sales.
- It is always advisable to enroll in such courses as they will provide you with experience and knowledge.
- Do Internships
- There are various internships in diverse sales fields that you can do while studying at your college.
- Refer to the internship section of this roadmap for more details.
- Get Certified
- Certification courses validate your learning.
- The Certification section in this article above discusses about this in detail.
- Build Your Resume
- Before you apply for any job, make sure you have made an up-to-date resume for yourself.
- This is the most important step as the recruiters will judge you first on the basis of your resume only.
- Prepare For Interview
- The final step to securing a job as sales associate is clearing the interview process.
- Refer to the mentioned links to know some of the frequently asked questions in Sales Associate Interview.
IX. TOP 10 COMPANIES IN INDIA TO HIRE SALES ASSOCIATE AS A FRESHER
X. TOP 4 HIGHEST PAYING SECTORS IN SALES JOBS
- Financial Sector
- Pharmaceutical Sector
- Cyber Security – Technology Sector
- Software as a service (SaaS) - Technology Sector
XI. FUTURE OUTLOOK
Future in Sales is bright. There are ample job opportunities available in the market in Sales. Every company needs Sales professionals to sell their products. With the rise of start-ups in India, demand for Sales professionals is increasing day by day. You can find multiple job openings for Sales at each level starting from fresher to 25 and more years of experience.
According to a recent report by Apna.co, job postings in India have increased by 2X quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) by top unicorns. According to the report 80 percent of hiring demand was from 3 top fields – field sales, business development, and delivery people.
With the advancement in technology, use of technology will increase in Sales. If you are looking for a career in Sales, you must stay updated with current technology trends.
XII. CAREER HIERARCHY
As a Sales Associate you can get hired at various posts. The career hierarchy for each of the job roles is mentioned below.
- Account Executive > Sales Manager > Store Manager > District Manager
- Consultant > Manager > Operations Manager/ Regional Sales Manager
- Sales Consultant > Account Executive > Assistant Manager > Branch Manager
ALL THE BEST!!!
