Sales Advisor (JHB North) at Smollan

Role Purpose

• The Inside Sales Advisor is responsible for converting qualified leads into signed customer contracts through a professional, consultative, phone-based sales process. This is not a generic telesales role.
• The role requires a commercially sharp sales professional who can sell subscription-based, financial-value, and technically enabled energy products to customers who may be sceptical, price-sensitive, comparison-shopping, or unfamiliar with solar and prepaid-led energy solutions.
• The successful candidate must be able to understand customer needs, explain complex product value propositions clearly, build trust quickly, manage a CRM pipeline with discipline, and close high-quality customers into signed agreements. This JD builds on the original telesales profile, but raises the calibre requirement from basic telesales to technical inside sales, while retaining the core requirements around consultative selling, closing, CRM pipeline management, and customer experience.
• We are looking for high-performing inside-sales professionals who can sell subscription-based, financial-value, and technically enabled energy solutions over the phone.
• This is not a basic telesales role. You will need to understand customer needs, explain complex product value clearly, build trust with sceptical customers, manage your CRM pipeline with discipline, and close customers into signed contracts. Experience in insurance, telecoms, SaaS, financial services, Solar, Energy, Fibre, or other contract-based product categories will be highly advantageous.
• Residential and Light Commercial Energy Solutions

Sales Conversion and Pipeline Management

• Convert qualified inbound, outbound, referral, and campaign leads into signed customer contracts.
• Sell across residential and light commercial energy products, including solar, backup, prepaid-led, subscription, and adjacent energy solutions.
• Run a structured consultative sales process to understand customer needs, electricity usage, property profile, affordability, decision drivers, and objections.
• Recommend the right product based on customer requirements and product fit.
• Explain pricing, savings, subscription value, contract process, credit requirements, installation journey, and customer obligations clearly.
• Close customers effectively into signed contracts.
• Maintain an accurate and up-to-date pipeline in the CRM system.
• Create follow-up tasks, capture call notes, update sales stages, and record lost reasons accurately.
• Proactively manage customer follow-ups to prevent leakage between interest, qualification, contract sent, and contract signed.

Customer Education and Trust Building

• Build trust with customers who may be sceptical, cautious, price-sensitive, or comparing alternatives.
• Explain complex product value propositions in simple, commercially compelling language. Handle objections related to price, affordability, savings, contract terms, installation, product reliability, and service expectations.
• Provide a professional and confidence-building customer experience from first contact through to signed agreement.
• Avoid overpromising or misrepresenting product capability, savings, timelines, or contractual terms.
• Ensure customers understand what they are signing and what happens next in the journey

Financial and ROI-Based Selling

• Hold confident conversations about monthly cost, savings, value, affordability, and return on investment.
• Help customers understand the financial benefit of the recommended product versus their current energy cost or alternative solutions.
• Position subscription-based products in a way that is clear, credible, and customer-relevant.
• Use financial-value framing to support conversion without creating unrealistic expectations.
• Identify when a customer is not financially or operationally suitable and escalate or qualify out appropriately.

CRM, Data, and Performance Discipline

• Use CRM consistently as the single source of truth for lead status, customer notes, next steps, and pipeline movement.
• Maintain accurate records of contact attempts, customer interactions, qualification outcomes, objections, lost reasons, and contract status.
• Track and understand personal sales metrics, including contact rate, conversion rate, close rate, pipeline age, follow-up completion, and reasons for lost sales.
• Use performance data to improve personal sales effectiveness.
• Participate in coaching, pipeline reviews, call reviews, and performance discussions.
• Take ownership of personal sales activity, productivity, and conversion outcomes

Brand Representation and Customer Experience

• Represent the company professionally in every call, WhatsApp, email, and customer interaction.
• Deliver a consistent, high-quality sales experience aligned to the brand promise. Communicate clearly, respectfully, and confidently.
• Collaborate with sales supervisors, operations, credit, scheduling, installation, and customer success teams where required.
• Support a smooth handover from sales to downstream operational teams.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Matric required.
• Tertiary qualification in sales, marketing, business, finance, technical studies, or a related field is advantageous.
• Minimum 2–3 years’ proven sales experience in a phone-based, remote-sales, telesales, or inside-sales environment.
• Proven experience selling subscription-based, financial, technical, telecoms, SaaS, insurance, energy, solar, fibre, security, or other contract-based products is highly advantageous.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a sales pipeline using a CRM system.
• Proven experience in consultative selling, objection handling, follow-up management, and closing.
• Experience working in a target-driven or commission-led environment.

Key Competencies

• Consultative selling and needs diagnosis.
• High-conversion closing.
• Ability to rapidly learn and confidently articulate complex product value propositions.
• Financial and ROI-based conversation skills.
• Trust-building with sceptical customers.
• Objection handling.
• CRM and pipeline discipline.
• Customer focus and service excellence.
• Self-awareness of personal sales metrics and performance.
• Results-driven and commission-oriented mindset.
• Ethical and responsible selling.
• Resilience and accountability.
• Structured follow-up and pipeline ownership.
• Remuneration Orientation