Based on existing practice, it is much more promising and effective to use the principle of specialization for building your sales department. It is necessary to organize the division of work, where sales department will be engaged in the work with the client, and the technical side will be handled by qualified personnel. This approach eliminates the necessity for in-depth knowledge of products or specifics of the business from regular salespersons. It is sufficient for them to understand the key issues that may be associated with certain products or services. A thorough analysis will reveal the most frequently asked questions, the answers to which the sales persons should know. Even if, at a certain stage of negotiations, deep technical knowledge will be required, you can always engage a dedicated specialist from the respective department.
This system also excludes the participation of sales managers in key negotiations with business partners. For such events, they must necessarily involve specialists with technical knowledge and experience in conducting corporate negotiations. These may be technical experts, individuals representing the company's management, or both. This effective pattern of sales organization involves creating special negotiation units, including an employee of the commercial department and a technical specialist. A team of two employees is able to conduct technically complex negotiations with maximum efficiency for the business. It should be noted that the maximum result can be achieved only with the active cooperation of employees from sales and different departments.
This way, the sales manager leads the commercial work - he accumulates the necessary information, establishes contact with a potential client, creates friendly relations and conducts preliminary negotiations. A commercial department employee needs not possess knowledge of the technical component, but instead must identify the needs and expectations of the client. In turn, the technical expert has no idea about the organization of commercial events; he does not know how to attract potential customers, how to work with large corporate clients, how to make cold calls, or how to update the customer base.
The above structure of organizing the sales department gives a number of advantages for business and resolves a number of typical complications experienced by business when this department is organized in a classic way.
For further details please visit the respective section on our page on sales courses.