Ramon Martin P. Revilla - NU 12 paper #3 - Professionalism – new work, methods, practices

Ramon Martin P. Revilla                                                       Entrepreneurship S10

MBA Standard                                                                       Professor Jorge Saguinsin

Ateneo Graduate School of Business                                   September 23, 2013

Professionalism – new work, methods, practices

Medical and Sales Representatives, Detail Man is it a professional job, or do you need to neither be functional nor be competitive?

Sales and marketing is a kind of job that requires great ideas, creativity and innovative thinking.  It is said that a great sales and marketing person produces his/her best output during high degree of pressure, that is why it is also said that sales and marketing is a good stepping stone for a career path.

But can we consider sales and marketing a career? Do they need to have functional and repetitive working environment? Is it necessary to have a competency for employee differentiation, will the numbers or quality/volume of sales will gauge the skills of a great sales person?

Being a medical sales representative (detail man) as they call it before requires a holistic skill competency for it caters different job aspects at certain degree of difficulty, now a days in order for a sales person to deliver sales he/she first needs to deliver the needs and wants of the client.  A skill that requires flexibility of character and focus in client profiling, here are some of my thoughts on how to be a successful sales person:

Customer Engage – great sales persons not only focus on clients, rather have commitment on delivering needs and wants, with engagement it separates the sales person and creates his/her differentiation among other sales person. Focus is different with engagement.

Business Analysis – it is said that if a soldier would go to war he/she must be knowledgeable of the battlefield and always prepared on what to do.  In sales and marketing, it is important to do a geographical strategy of the area, know the key opinion leaders, availability of distribution channels and know what problems needed for solutions.

Innovative – sales and marketing people always need to provide creative ideas, introduces and applies something new, useful and valuable to the company and its stakeholders most especially its customers.  There is a saying in marketing " Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle" < Let us mention some of these Martin>

Act like an Entrepreneur – sales people must have mindsets of as if they own the company, they need to show integrity and sincerity for their jobs and produce better or outstanding performance sales outputs, sees opportunities, enhances results and consider setbacks as learning opportunities.

Leadership Skills – demonstrates ability to carry out company's vision to manage changes; leads, builds and motivates co workers/team mates to achieve objectives with integrity and proactivity.  This skill is the most important competency; it can inspire and influence colleagues for a sustainable and successful common goal.

Team Work – collaborates to achieve common objectives and encourages diversity of views and creates synergies among team members and across work units.  This can lead to better working environment both internal and external.

Communication – in sales, communication is the most important part.  Integrated communication is the best weapon a sales person must have, with proper endorsements and clear client – sales communication it will ensure that the information is passed on to others who need to be kept informed detailed and accurately.

Working in sales and marketing requires not only being functional, it requires skills of some extraordinary, a competency that separates the good from the best and the best from the excellent.  The job must be considered as a profession not just a stepping-stone for another career.