Sales intelligence:how to sell more with less product return.

Recently I was at one of the outlets of Future shop to buy a laptop. While I was there, i went through the products on display. There was a product expert called Nicole Dewar . She was an exceptional salesperson in that she was not concerned about just selling a product “anyhow” rather she was much more concerned about selling products and value. The value is the intangible aspect of a transaction process. A customer may buy or not based on that alone. And selling a product in today’s market require sales intelligence that can carefully combine both together during the course of a transaction. Nicole listened attentively to what customer had to say. She focused 100 percent on a customer per time. She gives a sense of respect and utmost importance to what the customer has got to say? She try to understand why s/he wants to buy and why s/he want want to buy? By giving utmost attention to customers, she was charming them, bonding them and giving them more reason to consider buying right away . That was the way  i felt. I felt like buying all the product she was having in her section in that mall.

What most salespersons don’t learn to figure out fast, while mastering their product knowledge is people’s skill. Ability to bond with people first before scheming to get money out of them. What they fail to master as well was their concern for what will make the customer come back again and again to buy from their company. This is actually beyond cramming the vision and mission statement. It is the ability to enter into customers world, to peek through their mind, to understand the psychology surounding the customers intention of buying. This require spending qualitative time with the customer/clients to see what exactly the customers’ needs are? Converse to these, most of the sales people we see around daily are more concerned about getting rid of their products, dumping it on you. They are “pushy” and more eager to sell you “stuffs”. Little wonder that many products are later returned days after their purchase. To minimize such occurence the sales process must not be shortcircuited. Every transaction should be executed  with value.once these are no longer missing in the course of a transaction, sales will rise greatly.

Achieving successful innovation management

Innovation management is managing innovation from raw state into finished forms. Innovation could be in guise of strategies, know-how of product and services, business development, plans, predictions, prophecies, forecasts, information technology, ideas, et.al. To live on the cutting edge is to be able to evolve some of these. Innovation management is therefore a hub of business branding. It will continue to bring the market edge in 21^st century businesses and beyond. That is what is prevalent in business development; as managers strategize through creative intelligence towards realization of idea implementation. Businesses that will win in the present world economy must be innovation conscious and employ innovation managers deliberately. For a business to be relevant they must pay the price for innovative intelligence. The ability to provide the irrefutable, practicable answers that has not been but which has the potential and capacity to be proven is certain through these people.

Some successful organization may have at their core, some project managers among their executive who operates with valuable ideologies and team up to bring increase which justifies their annual budget and expenditure throughout the year. The implementation of their innovative business principles may have yielded great turnover at year end such that they may not mind the cost of retaining, retraining such staffs. It may never happen that way forever, if what they work with his basic project ideologies rather than futuristic projections. Reason is that project has already been done but innovation is yet to be executed. It is a question of that thin line between what is yet to come and what we are already seeing. On the other hand another business may reach their year end, evaluate and discover skyrocketed costs. They may decide on employing creative intelligent staffs by replacement method. They may choose to downsize, turn back on their vision and mission statements unconsciously. They may subtly violate policies and corporate promises. Rather than going through the season and coming out wet, but better on the other side. They may bow out, lose business integrity and more.  Corporate teams must be re-trained to enable them embrace innovation in thoughts and actions. The training may be intangible in value. It will prevent refusal of creative ideas and insights.  It will avoid unyielding attitude to authority with innovation edge. If it threatens their comforts; they may not be braced up for it. They may see it as obstacle and prefer to avoid it out rightly by continuing reinventing the wheels. They must see possibilities and advantage for them not to quit on innovation. It’s like; the next “mad rush” will not be like “gold rush” but it will be towards actualization of stable business economic environment through intelligent outsourcing. And just as in days of gold rush, most business will be madly securing their market share by determining their “business gold” which is the capacity of their corporate teams. Through outstanding idea managers, employers will deliberately expand and the cycle will begin again for a search for indispensable employees who possess outstanding profiles; capacity, result-oriented and track experience attributes and more.

Individual process for innovation actualization

There is an individual course work and progression towards innovation realization. We all have a responsibility in this journey. We need to ask if all around us; we are supporting innovation and innovators. If we embrace noble dreams, visions, and ideas of others irrespective of their brand names.We will be objectively do that.

Needless to add; if we must operate intelligently towards innovation actualization; we must not allow any idea to die in our hand, or in the file somewhere in our desks. Don’t forget that there is power in one man’s decision. And any innovative opportunity buried away in your drawer either consciously or unconsciously is a fight against innovation actualization. The odd may be insignificant today but it poses a very great evil at the next innovation world we are approaching very shortly.

There is an unconscious realization  that innovation decay and idea rut are unrealistic. The quickest way to end  the next age  impending development and advancement is to oppose innovation today. The fact remains that certain innovation in the next age will come with their pedestal firmly braced upon the previous generation and works. They will look like a “new” brand from the old.

Therefore, do not permit any brilliant idea expiration in your hands. Don’t sanction evil reports and then allow good suggestions get ignored in a meeting. Don’t oppose any noble idea or any opportunity for growth just because of ego. Do not attack the reputations of others in order to become popular; do not stop people’s dreams by your own influence. This is the gradual road there- our daily routines, our smallest decisions, our policies and the personal decisions we make.

As much as you can; try to bond with people; bond with change agents, create a community, start a positive epidemics of change, encourage change agents out there. Above all, if you cannot beat them, do not join them. Don’t give up, let up or shut up! Never allow mediocrity reign, do not celebrate corruption, or worship people because of money.

Innovative intelligence.

In my previous writings, I have discussed “Sniff”, as the ability to see, to observe and take the opportunities that is already available around you. The intuitive ability or craft to maximize resources that is already in existence. However, here, I am discussing innovative intelligence as something slightly different from sniff. This is the ability to think what is not there at all. Meaning that, it is the creative intelligence that can pick from the invisible realm. It is to be able to imagine some thing new and birth it in terms of implementation towards problem solving. This is an intelligent thinking that yields result. The aptitude of the thinker to propound an innovation that will become so valuable, indispensable and irrefutable such that even your business competitors, team rivals and political opponents and so on, would want to be a part of it. This is the way of the champions; they always operate in such a way that they are able to recruit opponents, tame competitors to their sides through mergers, acquisitions, synergy and alliances.  Conquering opposing forces and triumphing is a vital part of the game. If you are unable to do so; you may not be  operating with an edge that could take over businesses and/or society. It may mean that you are not persuasive enough in taking what is required to give you some edge. Seeing an end ahead of time may require persuading relevant people, forces that count towards rallying round the noble cause you see. And you cannot persuade people [friend or foe] until you have been able to show them results. The result is a part of the game that innovative intelligence produces. You may ask why persuade the opponent? You are leaving your back doors unclosed if you don’t.

If there is any reason for an innovation; it is that it will be able to meet certain specific needs. It takes innovative intelligence to propound relevant ideas and innovation that has never been; and yet it will become so indispensable and relevant to the society. Innovative intelligence is therefore a capacity to propose an idea, the aptitude to plan and implement it such that it will become so valuable to the target group be it customers or client. Since, the end of any innovation that we can ever think of is to add value, to develop, implement ideas that will meet needs of the target audience. Then it is required that we understand where the market was, where it is presently, and where the market is likely going. This is not guess work. This is not mere forecasting. Sometimes prediction can be very correct. It takes right predictions to become resourceful. More valuable than we can imagine is where innovative intelligence can take us. It can see the difference which forecasting cannot and then tell the error margins. It goes beyond the limits of scientific predictions. In leadership, it is able to see ahead and take the audience where they cannot see yet. It is able to move the people to where they have not thought of being before. It can take them beyond where they never thought they can be.

Every inventor was able to imagine what will suit the end they saw and then intelligently walk through the history lane with the enemies and friends as a part of the picture. Their enemies may not necessarily mean their critics, competitors or rivals but they are definitely not their fans. Sometimes many businesses’ specific goals amongst several are beating competitions in customer service, marketing and sales. The requirements it takes to reach their corporate goals may vastly depend upon their customer records and inventories. Innovative intelligence propounds innovation beyond corporate goals, which means that it may not depend largely on what is already on record. It may be out of the box imagination. It may imagine relevant idea but which may not be customer’s demand of today but which will definitely be so relevant and indispensable to customers tomorrow. It takes innovative intelligence to embrace innovation edge when they are presented.