Sales professionals are crucial for any business organization as they’re solely responsible for bringing in revenue. They also act as the intermediary between the company and its customers. Sales can be broadly classified into two categories depending on the service or product that is sold—inside sales and field sales. The approach for either of these can be totally different, but on the surface, the roles and responsibilities aren’t too far apart.
Professionals who work in the inside sales domain get in touch with customers via video conference, phone calls, and emails. They do not need to meet the client in person. On the other hand, outside sales professionals have to visit the client’s workplace or premises to provide support, attend meetings, and perform follow-ups.
Here’s a job description template for a sales professional that can give you an insight into the roles and responsibilities, qualifications needed, and required skills.
Sales Executive Job Summary
Our quickly growing and zestful organisation is on the lookout for a dynamic sales professional to get started as soon as possible. As a sales professional, you’ll be working with a team of sales executives covering multiple metro cities in India and online retailers.
We’re all about numbers and figures, so we expect that you have the same enthusiasm for it. The secret to our success has been projecting, assessing, tracking, and measuring, so we would like to know how the same has contributed to your success in the past as a sales executive.
If you must know, we sell [Mention specific product or service] so we expect you to be familiar with it and have the passion for our industry which will eventually drive our sales strategies and goals. You’ll be working with motivated sales professionals like yourself who honestly believe in the ‘work hard, play harder’ motto. There are no restrictions on creativity and independence in our organisation. And that is why we want you to bring your A game and of course have plenty of fun along the way.
The Sales Executive Responsibilities
- Reviewing sales performance and reporting
- Setting up new business relationships and links
- Pulling all stops to bring sales targets to fruition
- Organizing conferences and meetings with the prospective clients
- Surveying leads and getting in touch with them to pitch the service or product
- Demonstrating the working and benefits of the product or service to the customer
- Taking part in industry meet-ups, exhibitions and conferences for business development
- Assimilate feedback and complaints from customers(leads) and share it with the concerned teams
- Collaborate with different departments, professionals and sales team members to achieve exceptional results
- Discover new business opportunities by way of cold-calling, professional networking, and social media channels
- Perform detailed and honest market research to uncover business opportunities, customer needs, and evaluate gaps
- Negotiating the intricacies of the sales contract to come to a conclusion that’s in the best interest of the company and the customer
Required Skills for Sales Executive Jobs
In India, organizations belong to various sectors and industries. Naturally, their requirements for employees and the various skills they hold will not be the same. The same applies to sales executive jobs in India.
A few business organizations in India are only on the lookout for sales professionals who have completed their post-graduation from a recognized university or institute. To be specific, they require candidates who have completed their Masters in Business Administration(MBA) programmes. Having said that, other companies do not have stringent requirements. They may only prefer candidates who have completed their graduation from a top-tier institution(university)
So, if you do not have a postgraduate qualification, you need not stress over it because many business organizations look beyond educational qualifications. For instance, they may prefer soft-skills like communication, negotiation, and certain characteristics like personality and attitude.
And if you must know, there are several companies in India who hire candidates who haven’t completed their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In fact, candidates hired by such companies may not even have the right set of skills or exceptional work experience.
But do note that such candidates would have to start at the bottom tier of the sales department. Moreover, they would be required to start their career in sales with low compensation packages.
Let’s take a look at some of the typical skills that organisations look for in prospective sales executives.
- Exceptional proficiency in English and good presentation skills
- Ability to learn fast and proven experience in the sales domain
- Knowledge of documentation and reporting software such as MS-Office
- Right attitude, driven self-motivated, goal-driven, amiable personality
- Complete understanding of marketing techniques and negotiating techniques
- Familiarity with software for sales management and CRM is an added advantage
- Proficiency in one or two more regional languages depending on the location and role
If you’re aspiring to become a sales professional in India then this job description template will offer you much insight. For hiring companies, this template can be utilized (with a few modifications) to clearly express the job, its nature, and other specific details.