Do we still need the salesman?

It is tempting in a world full of innovative products and wide-reaching marketing campaigns to think that the salesman is no longer such a vital business asset. But the inescapable truth is that sales are the driving force behind business growth: a product or service can trump everything else on the market in theory, but if your customers aren't forking out, the business is pretty much dead in the water.

It is worth keeping this in mind when looking at businesses in administration to buy. Financial failure can strike for any number of reasons and isn't always a problem with the market itself. You may just have the sales trick up your sleeve needed to turn a fortune of a business that previously struggled to even turn a profit.

Good sales techniques themselves come in many forms, although in essence they involve finding a way of connecting a business idea or product with the outside world. According to recent comments from Philip Delves Broughton, author of 'Life's a Pitch', much of this can be accomplished by taking the suspicion out of a sale and allowing a customer to do what they came in to do.

Speaking to Peter Day on the BBC's Global Business, Mr Broughton added that things have become harder for salespeople in recent years, partly due to the abuse of sales techniques in the past, which pushed suspicion up among customers.

This means that there is now something of a battle between the seller and the buyer. But with the right mixture of product and sales technique, even this battle can be turned into a game designed to entice a buyer and secure a sale.

Essentially, when it comes to buying a struggling business a good sales team or representative can still hold the key to success, be it on a local face-to-face deal or a global marketing plan.

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