The sales consultant profession is one of the most common in many fields, services, and industries. Every company and business needs competent salespeople to be successful, and customers and potential customers need people to help them with a smile on their faces, knowledge of services and products, flexibility, and recommendations.
It is a job from which you can learn a lot about customer service, sales, communication, and human interaction - skills that can help you in a successful career in sales, business, marketing, and many other areas. What does the position entail, and what skills do you need to succeed and stand out? Find out from this article.
What does the sales consultant job mean?
A sales consultant usually works in the store or the office and guides the customers in choosing the right products and services. It aims to increase a company's sales using customer service and communication skills. Depending on the field, product or service, it may have different duties.
The primary responsibilities of a sales consultant include:
- Customer interaction
- Understanding their needs
- Knowledge of products and services and their presentation
- Advise customers to meet their needs and choose the right products
- Maintain a positive and friendly attitude.
- Maintain a database with recurring customers.
- Identify and attract new customers.
- Preparation of sales documents/contracts
- Maintain a good image of the company as a direct ambassador of the brand.
- Sometimes, it may involve prospecting for new customers, telephone sales, or dating.
Areas where you can work as a sales consultant
The sales advisor job is found in several areas and may have different specific attributes, depending on the following:
- Retail (fashion, IT&C, florists, cosmetics, supermarkets, furniture, optics, and other stores): you work in the store and offer advice to customers on products and understand their needs
- Services (technology, real estate, financial services, etc.)
- B2B (Business-2-Business): sell services to companies/representatives of companies that buy on behalf of the organization
- Call center: provide telephone sales advice.
Areas and areas are more diverse. Usually, the job of a sales consultant differs from that of a salesperson in that a consultant usually works in-store, makes sales, and provides advice to customers who enter the store. On the other hand, a salesperson goes on the field and attracts new customers. However, depending on the company and the services, the two primary responsibilities may be in the same role. Therefore, when looking for such a job, be flexible and open and understand the responsibilities in the job description and company services.
Skills needed to be a successful sales consultant
Among the most common skills and competencies required of a sales consultant or consultant are the following:
1. Communication and networking
You communicate with your customers daily, so the primary skills you need (but also the ones you will develop over time) are communication and good interaction with others. They also involve an excellent ability to listen, empathy, understanding, negotiation, presentation skills, and persuasiveness.
2. Knowledge of products and services
In many areas, you may not need previous experience in that industry, and you will learn the products and services on the job. But it is also an advantage to specialize in a particular sector. The better you understand the details of the products and services you sell to customers, the more thriving you will be, and the more you will know what to recommend.
3. Positive attitude
How you greet your customers in the store or talk to them on the phone makes a big difference. You inspire confidence and create a better connection if you have a positive, enthusiastic, open, cheerful, calm, relaxed, energetic attitude with a smile on your face. Those customers may even ask about you when they enter the store. It is also essential to look nice and neat.
4. Customer service
This skill can be developed as you practice the profession. Good customer service increases the rate at which customers return to buy from you. It combines skills of communication, listening, patience, understanding, and responding to the needs with the most appropriate products, presenting services and products, offering new solutions, and resolving complaints and possible problems, challenges or conflicts.
5. Initiative, proactivity, ambition
Similar skills that bring success in a sales consultant role are those related to the initiative: ambition, proactivity, creativity, identifying new solutions, problem-solving, flexibility, and adaptability. They are the skills that can make you stand out and be promoted within the company but are also necessary to meet your sales target/objective successfully.
6. Organization
In order to be successful in all of your responsibilities, you need to be well-organized: clear your goals for longer or shorter periods, successfully plan what you have to do, coordinate well, and can quickly change the focus when clients need the advice to appear.
7. Collaboration and teamwork
Even if you often interact alone with customers, you need to be a good colleague and team player. You have common goals as a team, and you need to know when to help your colleagues, learn from each other, give feedback when appropriate, brainstorm to identify growth ideas, and support one another.
8. Responsibility
Being punctual, taking on tasks, and completing them are essential parts of any job. However, as a sales consultant, it also means knowing that you are responsible for the pleasant customer experience concerning you and the brand.
9. Technology
In some sales consulting jobs, it helps to be familiar with the technology. For example, you may require to use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, an Excel database, make sales reports, and draw up contracts and invoices. If you want to work on selling services and products related to technology, it helps even more, to be familiar with their use. Of course, they can be learned on the job, but if you have such skills, it is good to mention them in your CV.
10. Sales techniques
Understanding the sales process is something that helps you a lot to fulfill your role successfully. If you have worked in the field, mentioning how you applied this in the previous job descriptions is helpful.
What to incorporate in your resume when applying for a sales consultant job?
Stand out in front of recruiters and employers by the way you make your resume. What should be included:
- A short intro about you and your sales experience and what you want to achieve
- Your previous professional experiences
- Achievements and performances in previous jobs
- Your primary skills and competencies that recommend you for the job
- You can refer to the skills acquired in the job descriptions as well
