What is this job role called sales consultant and why is it good to know?
Before defining the job role, we first have to know there are two types of sales consultants: 1) who is working on the payroll of a sales company 2) sales consultant who is not on the payroll but works for the company sales for some compensation.
What are the qualities for a sales consultant?
Generally, they are sales experts with extraordinary communications skills, well organised and extremely confident who also have the ability to contribute to sales strategy, sales process, success of sales teams and finally increase revenue for the sales department.
They are good at using technology for the sales function’s growth, have profound knowledge of the product/service they sell , possess in-depth understanding of the market and target audience, competition and industry best practices.
They are critical thinkers, have problem-solving skills. They are comfortable with networking, developing business relations with customers, and industry leaders and they have the charisma to navigate conversations with more positive outcomes.They work along with the marketing and Sr.Leadership team in building brand awareness and defining social media strategy.
Now, let’s understand the 2 types of sales consultants and their roles –
Type 1
This sales consultant is not an employee of the company but works independently to achieve sales growth for the company for a sum. This profile is deemed to be the elite version of the sales people. With all the attributes of a sales consultant mentioned previously, the person in this role will monitor sales process, sales team’s performance, periodically joins the sales team for clients meetings, identifies the gaps in sales process, offers recommendations to sales strategy formulation and improvements and involves sr.leadership wherever necessary in decision making.
They also work along with the marketing team in brand building and consumer awareness, utilise sales tools for analytics and reports for the Sr.management.
Type 2
Individual contributors within the sales organisation who are sales experts and whose experience is immensely powerful for the sales function are sometimes promoted as sales consultants. They work like an individual contributor and may not have the team lead role but have direct access to contributing to teams success across the sales function. Please note they are not the same individual contributors we have in the sales team, they hold a special place in the sales function while working as an individual contributor who can take up Sr.roles within the company. They will often mentor and train new salespeople or teams and simply put they enrich the sales teams to achieve revenue targets.
Nowadays, more and more organisations are elevating Sr.sales people to this role for reasons like – 1) unavailability of a team lead role at the moment 2) retain the Sr.talent 3) count on their expertise to organisation’s sales success 4) groom the younger talent for future business needs.
Conclusion –
If your organisation has no team lead role available at the moment, but can create a consultant role for you then make sure you are ready for it with all the attributes mentioned above.
Happy Selling!
P.S. You could also read a related article for this post – “Consultative selling – A better Sales Approach“
