Skip to content
Back to experience

Role

Sales Director

Empresas Garzón · Táriba, Táchira, Venezuela

Sales management in a high-volume environment, with two mandates that were in practice the same one: managing the customer relationship and putting order into sales processes that ran on habit.

I worked with consultative selling and key account management, set up sales metric tracking, took on incident resolution and coordinated promotional campaigns with the operational teams. The result was fifteen percent growth in sales along with an improvement in retention.

See my projects Let's talk
Empresas Garzón
Empresas Garzón

Feb 2020 — Nov 2021

Consultative sellingKey accountsSales KPIs

  • People
  • Operations
+15 %Sales growthWith a simultaneous improvement in retention
1 year 10 monthsDurationFebruary 2020 to November 2021
TáribaLocationMain avenue of Las Vegas de Táriba, via Arjona

My responsibility

Consultative selling, key account management, tracking of sales indicators, issue resolution, promotional campaigns and coordination with operational teams.

Result

+15% sales growth with a simultaneous improvement in customer retention.

The challenge

  • High sales volume with no written procedure, sustained only by the stability of the team
  • Uneven sales from one transaction to the next: the team sold by habit, not by a described process
  • Key accounts with no differentiated follow-up despite concentrating a large share of revenue
  • Checking availability before a promotion depended on a personal favour, not on a mandatory step

How I approached it

  1. Identify the key accountsI located the fraction of customers that concentrated a large share of revenue and assigned them named follow-up; it was the first measure I took.
  2. Start from the customer's needI worked on consultative selling: starting from what the customer needed to solve rather than from the available catalogue, even if it was slower per transaction.
  3. Measure with sales indicatorsI set up the tracking of sales indicators to discuss performance with data instead of impressions.
  4. Treat the incident as a processI took over incident resolution and treated it as a process with an owner and a deadline.
  5. Coordinate sales with operationsI designed the promotional campaigns with the operations teams, checking availability before committing to each offer.

Work blocks

Describe the sales process

A team without a procedure did not sell less for lack of effort: it sold unevenly. The part of the role I developed most deliberately was describing the process, not motivating.

Consultative selling

I started from what the customer needed to solve rather than from the catalogue. It is slower per transaction and produces a relationship that withstands price comparison when the product is substitutable.

Key accounts

A small fraction of customers concentrated a large share of revenue and could not be served with the general procedure; I identified them and gave them named follow-up.

Sales indicators

I set up the tracking of sales indicators to discuss the team's performance with data instead of impressions.

Incident resolution

It is the only moment when the customer sees what happens when something goes wrong; that is why I treated it as a process with an owner and a deadline.

Campaigns with operations

I designed the promotional campaigns checking warehouse availability before committing to the offer, and turned that check into a mandatory step.

In detail

The full story

01

The role

I joined Empresas Garzón in February 2020 as sales director and left in November 2021. The company sold at high volume with no written procedure, a combination that works as long as the team is stable and stops working the moment it isn't.

It is a sales role and I present it as such, but the part I developed most deliberately was process. A sales team without a procedure doesn't sell less for lack of effort: it sells unevenly, and that unevenness isn't fixed by motivating people, it's fixed by describing the process.

02

Consultative selling and key accounts

I worked with consultative selling, which means starting from what the customer needs to solve rather than from the available catalogue. It is slower per transaction and produces a relationship that survives a price comparison, which is the only real defence when the product is substitutable.

Key account management addresses a well-known asymmetry: a small fraction of customers accounts for a large share of revenue and can't be handled with the same procedure as the rest. Identifying that fraction and giving it named tracking was the first measure I took.

03

Metrics, incidents and campaigns

I set up sales metric tracking so performance was discussed with data rather than impressions, and took on incident resolution, which is where whether a customer returns gets decided. A well-resolved incident builds more loyalty than a well-made sale, because it is the only moment the customer sees what happens when something goes wrong. That's why I treated it as a process with an owner and a deadline.

I designed promotional campaigns coordinated with the operational teams, which is where most of them fail: a promotion the warehouse can't fulfil doesn't generate a sale, it generates a broken expectation and an incident. Coordinating sales with operations meant checking availability before committing to an offer, and making that check a mandatory step rather than a personal favour.

Results and impact

Result

+15 % in sales

Fifteen per cent growth in sales between February 2020 and November 2021.

Customer loyalty

Improved customer loyalty went along with the sales growth, supported by consultative selling and by incident resolution with an owner and a deadline.

Mandatory check

The availability check before a promotion went from being a personal favour to a mandatory step in the process.

Performance discussed with data

The tracking of sales indicators replaced impressions with data in the discussion of performance.

Stack

Consultative sellingKey accountsSales KPIs

Skills used in the role

Domain

Inventory managementLogistics management

Frameworks and methods

Operational excellenceTeam leadership

Contact

Raw signals · real decisions

Let's talk See my projects
Next role Futuro Sostenible Project Management LeadFuturo Sostenible · Apr 2020 — Aug 2021