It's Time To Wake Up Sales People!

Why is it that when companies are being told time and time again that making a decent profit margin is an absolute priority, am I still surrounded by fools who still think it's a good idea to sweep their quotes so much they're doing the work for nothing? All to make sure they win the order? Whats the point!!


We have one of two reasons to choose from here folks. The first choice is that the people in charge of these companies have no basic understanding of mathematics and have no business skills. They don't understand that in a time of economic hardship, the work they bring in must have some profit attached to it so that they can stay afloat to hopefully make more money and honour the guarantees they give out.


The second choice we have is that they are unable to sell the benefits of their product over their competitors'. They feel that the only way to secure a deal is to make it cheaper than everyone else's, even if it means making very little or nothing at all. But they think it's OK because even though they're doing it for nothing, no else has got the work.


Which ever reason you pick, both are ridiculous. Duncan Bannatyne was on Sky News Wednesday morning and the news reader asked him what was one of the biggest mistakes people make in business. He said that one of the biggest failures of people in business was people blaming everything but themselves for their shortcomings. And this applies here. I don't believe that you can't make a decent profit during times like these. If you sell your benefits well, believe in your product, know your product inside and out, and provide exemplary service from the beginning, there's no reason for your quotes to have little or no profit. These hairy fairy excuses of 'there's too much competition' and 'times are tough' don't wash with me. We managed to increase our profit margin all the way from the recession in 2008 to now - through professional salesmanship good business sense.


And you don't have to give in you know, when a customer asks for a discount, more times than not they're prepared to accept the quote you gave them in the first place, they're just trying their luck.


You may ask why I'm so bothered about this. It bothers me because the reason why people are in business is to make money. Why else would businesses exist? Yet during these last few years we've seen many people lose their heads, become irrational and have forgotten how to run a business effectively and profitably. This to me is completely unacceptable when there are people's jobs and livelihoods at stake. Owning/running a business means you have a lot of responsibility, if you can't hack it, leave and don't run the company into the ground!