Roles of Sales Manager and Trader in Steel Industry

1. Roles of Sales Managers
in
Steel Industry
By
Madhusoodhanan Sayeenathan
www.knowyoursteel.com
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2. Contents
• How Steel is being sold?
• Classification of Steel Companies
• Sales Managers in Major Steel Companies
• Traders in Steel Trading Companies.
• Attributes of a Good Sales Manager/ Trader
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3. How Steel is being Sold
• Steel - is a highly capital intensive product.
• By virtue of the “Corporate Brand”, the product gets sold
by itself.
• Steel companies are normally big entities than the steel
consuming firms.
• More than the consumer, Steel companies have more
say on how they price the product and what product to
offer and how to distribute the product.
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4. How Steel is being Sold
• It is impossible to produce steel without rejections.
• it is also impossible to have a 100% quality check of
end products before being dispatching from factory.
• The quality of a steel product is taken care by the
production facilities that the company employs.
• A wise Steel buyer can judge the quality of the steel
from a steel company based on the technology and the
facilities used by the mill.
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5. Classification of
Steel Companies
• Brand name and Quality Control significantly takes care of the sales of
any steel product.
• To define the responsibility of a sales Manager in a steel company, it is
important to classify the steel companies.
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Steel Companies can be broadly classified in to
Primary Steel Producers (or Major Steel producers).
Secondary Steel producers.
Steel Trading Firms
Service Centres
Steel Stockists
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6. Sales Manager – Major Steel
Producing Companies
• To allocate the production quantity to different
customers/geography forecast them
• Orders normally come to these steel companies.
• Sales manager enhances the profit/ realization.
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7. Roles of Sales Manager
• To carry the company’s brand name to the market. Their
actions will reflect on the image of the company.
• To increase the profitability of the company
• Act a liaison between the management and the
customers and try to meet the expectations of both of
them.
• Co-ordinate the entire sales activity from order intake till
delivery.
• Constant feedback to the management from the market
to decide on future strategy.
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8. Roles of Sales Manager
• Rules are normally laid with a top-down approach.
• Sales managers are carriers and implementers of these
to the market.
• Sales managers are “Key Account Managers”.
• To co-ordinate order management and completion.
• “Paper Work” and documentation as required by the
company.
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9. Trader in
Steel Trading Firm
• The role of the Trader in a Steel Trading firm is
vastly different from a sales manager in Steel mill.
• A Trader has additional roles to play over and above
the roles of Sales Managers in a Steel Firm.
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10. Roles of Trader
•
•
•
•
Explore the whole steel market to look at opportunities.
Establish contacts and build credibility with Steel mills.
Develop customers and gain their confidence
Create value addition to act in between the producer
and consumer.
• Ensure continuous revenue generation with fewer risks.
• Gauge both producer and consumer before financing a
deal.
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11. Roles of Trader
• Traders are individual profit centers and revenue
generators for the trading firm.
• Steel mills have the option to sell/ pick and choose
customers.
• Trader has to prove their value both to the source
and consumer
• Trader has to identify the segments where there is a
need / gap and which is currently not being serviced.
• In other words, Traders act as entrepreneurs and
work as if the company is theirs.
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12. Attributes of a Good Sales
Manager / Trader
• The “HUNGER” & “PASSION” to grow the business.
• The “URGE” to do things and get things done
quickly.
• “NETWORKING” Skills
• “PERSEVERENCE”
• Ability to gauge people – “INTERPERSONAL
SKILLS”.
• Ensuring “CUSTOMER SATSFACTION”
• “NO EGO” but maintaining “SELF RESPECT”.
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13. Quote to a Sales Person by his boss…
“At the end of every conversation, customer should
get a feeling that he has won it. But actually you
should have won it.”
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