THE DIARY OF A PROTEAN SALESMAN

WITH

RASHEED ADEWUSI

(Rasheed is a Sales Manager in one the telecommunication companies operating in Nigeria. He also runs the personal blog, Wise, Wide and Wild)

Introversion and Taciturnity are two words that should not be found in proximity with Sales Professionalism. Sales as a Vocation, a Career, or even a Past-time has to be built on networking. Sales is all about developing leads, closing deals, maintaining contacts, building relationships, developing new leads, closing more deals, and the cycle continues. Sales is an endless cycle, a closed sale signifies an opportunity for repeat purchase, and the outlook should always be for the long term.

Networking is the bedrock on which successful Sales Professionalism is erected. Everyone you come in contact with everywhere is a potential, and you can only realize the potential through networking. This starts from informal conversation to exchange of contacts, to follow-up, to a systematic sales pitch, to reinforcement, and to an actual sale. More importantly, Networking should always be embarked upon with the bigger picture in mind. Priorities should always be given to “persons of influence” whose co-operation can get you multiple contacts with little or no stress.

Networking should be as varied and as diverse as possible. The reality is the conversion rate is not always high, because you are trying to build a web, of which each individual in the web also has their personal web which might include someone already offering what you have to offer. But rather than this being a factor to discourage you, it should rather spur you on to expand your web to increase your chances of success.

Network physically through Social Clubs, Residential Estate Associations, Old Student Associations, Religious Groups, Sports Clubs, Fitness Clubs, etc; Network online through LinkedIn, BBM, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, etc; maximize every opportunity, but make the efforts to build the network first and extract the benefits afterwards. Remember: long-term and bigger picture.

Nevertheless, as important and productive as networking is, it has to be done with the implication of so many nuances in mind. These nuances range from Cultural to Professional, to Interpersonal, Religious, etc. Cultural Nuances basically come in form of respect and how you show it. For instance, in most of our culture, it is considered rude to approach an older person without someone introducing you, thus it will be wrong for you to flout this procedure as the older person might consider you uncouth and thus form a negative perception of you without having listened to your pitch at all.

There is a very thin line between “being bold and proactive” and “being intrusive and uncouth”. The same applies to trying to pitch sales to people when they are somewhere to have fun and relax. Yes, if it was a planned appointment, it makes complete sense, but seeing someone relaxing over dinner and walking up to pitch a product is more often than not a recipe for disaster.

In synopsis, Networking is a productive art which all (aspiring) Sales Professional must perfect, but the deployment has to be tactful and systematic to achieve the desired objective of more leads and better deals.