Everyone is a salesman, are you?
30 Sep 2006

" Everyone is a salesman... including the company CEO. Even if you are only involved with marketing, product development, customer service, finance, logistics or IT operations, you need to acquire salesmanship as well and apply it to your daily works with your counterparts," says Mr. Kinson Loo, President (HKSAR), Motorola Asia Pacific Ltd.

By the same token, Mr. Lee Lik Chee specialises in selling himself. From his persistence in sending three application letters every week to Asia Television that eventually landed him a production assistant job at the TV station, to becoming executive director of many popular drama series and director of the best-selling movie "Shaolin Soccer", as well as serving as radio programme host and publisher, Lee now positions himself as a 'multi-media creator'.

Professor Stephen Ho considers sales a sub-function of marketing, applicable in business operations as well as our own personal career development. He is the Adjunct Professor of the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education.

At the "Sales and Marketing Leadership Seminar" jointly held by A-Performers.com and Metro Finance on September 30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the President of a telecommunication company, the Multi-media Creator and the Professor isolated several critical factors from different perspectives on how to become an effective sales and marketing professional.

"What makes a good salesman?" Mr. Loo says the establishment and maintenance of excellent customer relationships comes first. "The relationship with a customer has to be nurtured over a long period of time, but can be destroyed in seconds."

It is essential not only to build some trust with your customers but to build 'a great deal' of trust. To do this, Mr. Loo says, "A very helpful attitude will effectively lay the foundation of a long-term personal relationship."

Professor Ho also refers to the factor of People, together with Process and Physical Evidence, as the new 3Ps in line with the fundamental marketing 4Ps. Building up a long-term personal relationship is crucial to business development.

Even if you are not in the media industry as Mr. Lee is, creativity is also an indispensable attribute for marketing professionals. "It's important to do things differently and to think out of the box," says Mr. Loo. In fact, Motorola emphasises fostering staff creativity with direct channel communications and reward schemes to help promote new concepts and innovations from every employee.

"apm, which creatively positions itself as a 24-hour shopping arcade, helps differentiate its operations from the competition," says Professor Ho. "Differentiation is in fact one of the key elements in niche marketing."

Professor Ho also points out that the fast evolution of technology in recent years has created many innovative products. Mr. Loo, who himself always emphasises speed, envisions even greater significant technological breakthroughs, enabling seamless integration of modes and devices that will turn the world upside down. To better embrace this technological advancement, Mr. Lee is already preparing to apply his professional sound and visual processing as well as directorial skills to different unconventional media platforms like the Internet, 3G to 3.5G mobile phones, TV games, and many others.

In the audience was Mr. Yan, who works in the insurance industry. He was highly impressed by Mr. Koo's emphasis on speed and personal interaction. Ms. Chan and Ms. Wong are both marketing professionals from different industries, who felt that the seminar was enriching, especially in developing ideas about selling oneself and fostering creativity.