“To make their investment in personal selling pay off, companies expect a lot from their sales organisations. The expectations of salespeople can be viewed as achieving four key roles: financial contributor, change agent, communications agent, and customer value agent.”

– Ingram et al (2015)

Let’s examine each of these key roles.

1. Financial contributor: Bearden et al (2001) summarise this perspective by stating that: “Salespeople make perhaps their most important contribution to the marketing function as revenue producers.Businesses scrambling for survival in a highly competitive world have become more profit-oriented in recent years. To produce an adequate bottom-line profit, it is imperative to achieve a suitable top-line or sales revenue figure. And salespeople are on the front line supported of course by marketing research, product development, distribution and other areas of the business. Sales personnel, along with management are the prime bearers of the burden of contributing to profit by producing revenue.”

2. Change agent: Consider the salesman who sold the first wheel. Was he a change agent! A critical component of modern sales education is teaching salespeople to become effective change agents by understanding and skilfully applying the concepts of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and the Buying Cycle to their sales strategy.

Well-trained salespeople do not consider these as mere theoretical constructs. Instead, as change agents they work closely with marketing to get adequate support via mass and digital communications to foster rapid diffusion of innovation early in the PLC.

How? More specifically, they are expected to educate potential customers and advance toward an ultimate sale.

Further, by stimulating the early adoption process, salespeople can contribute to improved quality of life for consumers and improved business practices.

Back to the salesman who sold the first wheelbarrow. Check that wonderful little book, “Selling the Wheel” (Cox and Stephens) for further insights.

3. Communications agent: Everyone knows that personal selling is an element of the marketing communications mix. And as Ingram et al (2105) remind, “Basic economics holds that information has utility, and the value of information is widely recognised in the business world. Salespeople are heavily involved as two-way communications agents between their customers and their employers. Customers depend on salespeople for their knowledge of products and services, as well as developments in the marketplace. Sales organisations typically rely on their salespeople to be the eyes and ears of the company, reporting back to the company on competitive activity, buyer preferences, and ideas for new products. Despite the possibility that such communications activities could take away from selling time, most companies find it extremely beneficial to rely on the salesforce to provide valuable information back to the company. Thus it is important that salespeople are careful to report information accurately and in a timely fashion.”

4. Value agent: Happily — for some of us anyway — no computer can replace the power of a well-trained salesperson sitting face to face with a client, for people have relationships with people – not with machines!

While repetitive tasks will sooner or later be automated, salespeople will still be needed to create, communicate, deliver, and continually increase customer value in ways that only humans can. But shrewd salespeople will always keep abreast of technological advancement and know how to adapt its use to buyers’ situations, needs, and priorities. More specifically they must constantly seek value creating opportunities through:

• Customer and market knowledge

• Coordination with others in their company

• Efficiency in getting things done

• Strategic alignment of the the selling and buying organisations

• Trustworthiness.

Now for a parting cautionary note. Never seek to befriend your customer. They want value-creating relationships. Not friendships.

Written by Herman D. Alvaranga, president of the Caribbean School of Sales Management, the region’s first Public Training College specialising in sales and marketing education, consulting and research. E-mail him at hdalvaranga@cssm.edu.jm