When they hear the word “salesperson,” a lot of people’s eyes widen in horror. And often this stigma is well-founded—their experiences of being nearly accosted by overly smiley and well-dressed product pushers in shops, or even getting trapped by a seller in a phone call, has provided them with a bad perception of sales overall.
In product fulfillment, the area of sales is, for better or worse, a key part of your job. You have to sell your products in order to generate success for yourself. But while the other sales professionals are relentlessly chasing or hounding prospective leads, you are in a better position to do sales in a more civilized manner that still allows you to create success for yourself.
Sales organization in product fulfillment is a more indirect way of promoting products to the public at large. As a product fulfillment pro, you are using media as a vehicle to get people interested in what you have to offer, and facilitating a more comfortable environment to do business for all parties involved. There’s no need for forced flattery here—just good professional service skills.
However, sales and marketing in product fulfillment requires a bit of homework as well. If you are going to work in the more media-dominated environment of product fulfillment sales and marketing, you have to be ready to do some serious desk work. This work can help you streamline your sales strategy and execute your plans correctly.
Research and Development
In product fulfillment, your sales organization builds up around the single question: How are we going to get people to take notice of our products and get them to buy? That’s the basic premise; everything you do will focus on trying to answer that question.
With this in mind, you have to begin to do some targeting. Locating where you are going to direct your sales efforts and at what niche markets you will aim are important preliminary factors to consider. Knowing what the sales prospects—or how deep the pockets of your interested clientele—would be is also key in this process. You really want to find the targets that would be interested in what you have to offer and then direct your sales efforts in that direction.
Sales and marketing material in product fulfillment also have to be considered. You can do some flyers, create catalogs, and, today, design digital ads to be used online. Decide which ones you want to use and what would work best for your clients. A promotion strategy for product fulfillment is dependent on what you have to offer and who is willing to buy those products. Creating material to accommodate both what you have and who wants it is how you can further refine your sales strategy so the right people can find the right material either on their screens or in their hot hands.
Peaks and Valleys
Ask any real estate sales pro about how well things go over the course of a year, and they will probably tell you about the highs and lows—another important aspect of sales to understand. Sales cycles are something for which you have to be ready. Even in product fulfillment, you have to be aware that there will be periods in the year that are as busy as you can imagine and other periods that are quiet and nerve-rackingly uneventful. As a product fulfillment pro, you have to be ready for both peaks and valleys of activity when they come around.
Watch your sales activity throughout the year. Take note of the times that are slow, during which you can work on new sales ideas, and the times such as the winter holidays when you will be using your sales ideas and actually selling. This sort of preparation ensures that you are always on the sales ball with your business and will use your time and money effectively.
With sales in product fulfillment, you have to master the right approaches, skills, and service techniques in order to bring in the real rewards of product sales. It’s hard work, no question at all. But once you get into the swing of it, you can reap the rewards and deliver the most professional product fulfillment services out there to the people who want it.
Need solutions to your product fulfillment problems? APS Fulfillment, Inc has the knowledge and services to make your direct mail and product fulfillment ventures more successful. Contact APS Fulfillment, Inc by e-mail at [email protected], visit its web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or call (954) 582-7450.