- Who is a Sales Executive?
- Sales Executive Roles and Responsibilities
- Qualification and Skill Requirements for Sales Executive
- Other Similar Roles
- Top employers of sales executives
Who is a Sales Executive?
A sales executive helps to build a business by recognizing new business prospects and selling products to them. They maintain relationships with the current clients and develop and maintain new client relationships.
They are required to stay ahead of their competition. They regularly work on improving their skills through seminars, attending classes, or workshops.
Sales Executives are extremely important for an organization to bring in revenue and are also the liaison between the organization and clients. Depending on the product or service type, sales could be classified as field sales and inside sales. Even though the approach differs in these two types of sales, the roles and responsibilities are similar.
When it comes to field sales, the executives need to visit the client’s place for meetings, follow-ups, and support. On the other hand, inside sales involve contacting clients through emails, calls, and virtual meetings, eliminating the need to visit their workplace physically. The sales executive is one of the most progressive job profiles; read more about it here.
Types of Sales Executive:
Sales Executives are known by many other names like Sales consultants, Business Development consultants, etc. They usually operate under two main categories:
- B2C (Business to Consumer/Customer)
- B2B (Business to Business)
Roles and Responsibilities of Sales Executive
- Prospecting leads and contacting them to pitch the product/ service
- Setting up meetings with the prospective clients
- Presenting product/ service demonstrations to the client
- Establishing new business links
- Participate in conferences, exhibitions, and industry meet-ups for business development
- Sales reporting and reviewing performance
- Negotiating contracts to arrive at the best deal for the client and organization both
- Working towards achieving the sales target
- Conduct market research to evaluate gaps, opportunities, and alien needs
- Seek new opportunities through networking, cold calling, and social media channels
- Collaborate within teams to achieve better results
- Take feedback from customers and share it with support teams
Further Reading: How to become a Sales Manager
Qualification and Skill Requirements for Sales Executive
For sales executive roles, different organizations have different qualification requirements. Some organizations look for only post-graduates in business administration. Again, some companies only prefer graduates from Category A institutions, and some do not have such stringent criteria.
If you are not a post-graduate, do not worry; many organizations seek talent, determination, and the right attitude over a degree for the sake of roles in their organization. Ultimately, some organizations also hire non-graduates, but usually, such candidates would require to start with lower pay packages.
Some of the skills that organizations look for in a sales executive are:
- Proficiency in English
- Some companies prefer knowledge of the local language, especially when it is a field sales job (Example: distribution management in the retail sector)
- Prior sales experience
- Knowledge of MS Office mainly for reporting and documentation
- Knowledge of CRM or sales management software is an added advantage
- Deep understanding of negotiating techniques and marketing tactics
- Faster learning ability and passion for sales
- Self-motivated professional with a result-oriented approach
- Good presentation Skills
- Effective Communication Skills
Further Reading: How the pandemic changed B2B sales forever
Other Similar Roles
Other roles that are similar to the role of a sales executive are inside sales executive and business development executive. Let us understand the similarities and differences among these closely related job roles.
Inside Sales Executive
As mentioned above, an inside sales executive is the sales representative that connects with the client and handles all the business through calls, e-meets, emails, and other virtual methods rather than physically meeting the prospect or client. In addition to the KRAs of a sales executive, some of the other roles and responsibilities of an inside sales executive include:
- Maintaining long-term relationships with clients through effective after-sales support.
- Sourcing new sales opportunities through emailing and cold calling
- Develop a detailed understanding of the features and benefits of the product/ service
- Conduct virtual meet-ups to create new business relationships
- Guiding customers for suitable product/ service package selection based on their requirements and use case
- Creating and managing a sales pipeline as a reflection of the sales prospects and process
- Follow up on sales inquiries coming in through website, emails, ad campaigns, and inbound calls
- Setting up virtual meet-ups for demo teams and tech teams for them to explain the product functionalities to clients
Business Development Executive
Business Development executives drive sales for a company by acquiring new clients and getting additional business from existing clients. The sales cycle is usually longer, and the business relationship is repetitive and recurring. Business development executives play a key role in the business longevity of an organization.
The roles and responsibilities of an inside sales executive include:
- Develop a detailed understanding of the features and benefits of the product/ service
- Drive client acquisition through word-of-mouth, direct contact, and collaboration with the marketing teams to generate leads
- Indulge in various networking activities to connect with professionals that might end up being prospective clients
- Maintaining long-term, meaningful relationships with existing clients to retain business from them.
- Upskilling with upgrades and additional products/ services to the existing clients
- Documenting business proposals and contracts for each client acquisition
- Negotiating the terms of contracts to arrive at the best deal for the client and organization both
- Reviewing feedback from the clients and implementing necessary changes with the help of internal teams (mostly product and tech teams)
- Monitor consumption trends to ensure that your offering remains relevant to the client
Top domains that employ Sales executives
The top employers for sales executives are usually large companies that have a lot of products or services to sell. These companies may be in a variety of industries, but they all need sales executives to help them boost sales and grow their businesses. Some of the top employers for sales executives include Walmart, Amazon, and Apple. Given below are the top domains that employ sales executives:
- Retailers: There are a number of reasons why retailers might choose to hire sales executives. They may be looking to boost sales in a specific product area, or they may be seeking to increase foot traffic in their stores. Additionally, retailers may be looking for sales executives who can help them develop new marketing strategies or who have experience working with specific customer groups.
- Industrial organisations: Industrial organisations hire Sales Executives to increase their sales and market share. Sales Executives are responsible for identifying and developing new business opportunities, as well as managing and growing existing accounts. They work closely with other members of the sales team to create and implement sales strategies, develop sales plans, and set sales targets. In addition, Sales Executives are responsible for maintaining accurate records of sales activity and customer contact information, and providing regular reports to management.
- Service industries: Sales executives are responsible for generating new revenue for their employer through the sale of products or services. In order to succeed in this role, sales executives must be able to identify potential customers, build relationships with them, and ultimately convince them to purchase their employer’s products or services.
- Manufacturers: There are many reasons why manufacturers hire sales executives. They may need someone with sales experience to help them develop and implement sales strategies. They may also need someone to manage a sales team or to oversee sales operations. In some cases, manufacturers hire sales executives to help them expand into new markets or to sell new products.
- Charities: Sales Executive are hired by charities in order to increase donations and awareness for their cause. They are responsible for developing relationships with potential donors and convincing them to support the charity. In order to be successful, Sales Executives must be able to articulate the mission of the charity and its importance.
If you are an aspiring sales professional willing to get into the workforce, this job description will help you understand what it takes to be a sales executive. To better understand the role of a sales executive, check out this free course on Great Learning Academy → Case Studies in Sales and Marketing.
You can also check out the Advanced Certificate Program in Sales and Sales Management offered by Great Learning and learn from India’s Leading E-Learning Platform and Gain Sales Skills to Build a Rewarding Career. The course duration is 4-months, and you will have access to Dedicated Placement Assistance. Sign up now!
