6 Roles a CSP should play

Robert was reading a book about a legend happened in AD33, the night race between Bunny and the tortoise. He was pondering, why not we ride on this legend and have a night race? Thus the legend continues through AD2008………

However the media had another version and came out with a story about how a night race was decided. It reported that in a meeting between the officials and the committee members, the CEO was asking the racers to install cashcard readers so that when they pass through the gentry during the race, they will pay ERP fee subjected to local regulation. However, the cashcard reader will add weight to the motor and thus affecting the performance of the race. After hours of tough dialogues, the representative from commitee agreed to do the race at night when the ERP lights are put off and the racers do not need to start and stop at designated stands in the town area. What a relieve!

Whatever the legend is, with a legend, people will remember the race better. Do you have a legend to tell for your organisation?

The 6 members a team was formed and called themselves Sixth People. They formed to talk about everything that did not work. They strived to have solutions to these but unfortunately thought strikes could solve problems.

Remember the Donkey wore a blue hat? He was the chairman of the group who also took the responsibility of looking into all the suggestions of other 5 members, put them together and decide on the solution. Finally, he gave instruction to stage a demonstration in front of the palace. Phew, got arrested again!

So every time these 6 people had meetings, they rotated their hats and started contributing ideas.

In such meeting on the 1st April, they had discussion about what are the 6 roles an effective CSP should play.

All agree that an effect CSP must play the role of a Planner, Loyal Friend, Diligent Learner, Consultant, Personal Manager and Influencers.

1) Planner – CSP should do lots of planning and researching, knowing competitors’ products and their next activities, knowing market demands and customer’s profiles/ behaviour. This will result in easier and clearer planning and path on which directions we should go next.

2) Loyal Friend – CSP will find it easier to communicate with a customer who is also your friend. Thus it is extremely essential to make friends with customers so to understand their needs, personal likings, behaviour, dislikes and preferences. Customers will feel at ease if they see the CSP who is also a friend. Remember, loyal friend (CSP) will attract loyal customers. To establish friendship with someone just step into your shop, CSP may try putting up a casual greeting and conversation for a little while before going into sales promotion.

3) Diligent Learner – CSP learns and reads a lot, for sure. What we have learnt and know today is not something we can apply tomorrow. We take salts and rice but the kids prefer hamburgers. So constant upgrading ourselves with new information, findings, statistics, trends, demands, innovations, ideas and skills can be achieved by doing lots of readings, attending courses and sharing information in discussion groups. Maybe 5% of our earning each month for attending some courses?

4) Consultant – CSP should be a consultant. When customers step into a sales counter, they expect to have someone who can give advice, tell them what the products can do and cannot do. Sometimes give a little mild comparison with the competitor’s products may help to achieve better result. Importantly, ask and ask, ask more questions so we understand the customers needs better. Do you agree?

5) Personal Manager – CSP needs to organize and mange their own time, planning such as goals and vision. We may like to cut down our smoking time, spending telephone conversations, reading newspapers and coffee breaks. Manage our personal life well and our sales management will improve.

6) Influencer – CSP should be able to influence customer’s decisions effectively. Again, to be a great influencer, we need to have the above mentioned criteria such as being a loyal friend who has win trust, good consultant who ask relevant and professional questions, able to produce sufficient knowledge by reading and know more than our neighboring shops due to constant learning and planning. Knowing customers’ need helps to understand customers’ requirement and therefore able to promote the correct products, present the winning features the customers are looking for, set a comfortable pricing and ask them if they want the red or blue?

“Well done!” the tortoise claps his hands.” We now know how we can be a good CSP, so are we going for the demonstration again?”

Meanwhile, in prison, the Donkey penned a book and inside he writes “I am beginning to see a deep hole in front of this path, should I continue straight or make a detour?”