E. Andriopoulos | "Make your life simple and your sales a game"

It's true that the book is in all major bookstores and I'm glad people are looking for it. The book is aimed at any reader who would like to learn about sales and marketing, a simple way of systematic savings as well as a sales development system. The reader will find all the theory he needs to make an introduction to sales in a very simple way (principles and laws of sales, rare sales tips) and a sales system (Sales Development Program) that is the most effective method to increase retail sales and reducing errors in a business.

You are a sales and marketing person. What led you to launch your own book? Is there a gap, a lack, that you wanted to fill?

I have been involved in retail sales, network marketing and wholesale (B2B) sales for 20 years. I found that all businesses do sales (try to sell) while some don't do marketing (actions in advance to sell better or more) because they just don't care or want to do it and don't know how. Five years ago, as a manager of a bakery chain, wanting to reduce errors and increase sales, I created a system and marketed the sales themselves. Sales has now become a game! One just needs to understand this, learn the way through the book and incorporate it into one's work.

Without revealing the tips and steps that are suggested, would you like to talk to us, briefly, about the suggestions and the system that you present?

Unfortunately, in the field of retail sales there are rarely productivity incentives so that each salesperson is constantly focused on trying to increase sales (up selling, cross-selling). So, most of the time it just executes the client's command. If there are two sales secrets that a salesperson should have, they are persistence and patience. If I have to add a third, then it will be to build a system. The system he will build is the one that will allow him the best results. One can create their own system or implement the Sales Development Program, a method that makes sales more effective (instant recording of Up-Selling & Cross-Selling). You can increase sales and minimize mistakes by activating the Sales Development Program.

The title of the book contains both "sales" and "life", while the back cover states that the reader will gain "a quality of life". How, in your opinion, is the issue of sales related to quality of life?

There are many ways if one wants to make one's life simple, but the book focuses on a savings system with principles of capitalism. One secret is that we should pay ourselves first and not last. Its implementation or not is up to everyone's will. If we are oligarchs and like little and good, apply the savings system suggested in the book and make our sales a game through the Development Program, then we will have built a unique quality of life for ourselves.

In our country's current economic situation, is it easy for someone to improve their sales without encountering significant (perhaps insurmountable) obstacles or making significant concessions?

Businesses, sales, investments even the simplest things like driving a car in the city have risk. Especially if you don't have a driver's license. Knowledge and practice reduce risk in each of the above areas. So, in the field of sales, when one reads and understands the laws, principles and rare selling tips, one gains the knowledge to reduce one's risk of failure and increase one's success. Luck happens upon luck! The book then gives him an effective system for developing sales. The right professional should be constantly solving problems. The main ones he has to solve are increasing sales and reducing production costs, but the more problems he solves, the more successful he becomes. It should focus on the many solutions rather than the problems.

In your book you refer to a system where the customer will not feel taken advantage of. Dwelling on the word "exploitation" for a moment, do you think there is such a thing nowadays between employer, employee and customer relations?

Customer-Employer Relationship: How many times in our lives have we paid for something and not received a receipt? Too many. How many of us have been to islands that are cosmopolitan and simple food items like water, coffee or a salad soar? Isn't this exploitation? Instead of some businessmen having in mind how to sell more, i.e. to increase sales, what they do is to steal VAT from the customer or take advantage of the large supply of consumers and increase the prices of basic necessities, making luxury goods.

Employee-employer relationship: How many times does an employee also do some other work during the working hours for which he is not obliged simply to avoid losing his job? Nowadays, if an employee leaves on time and does not work overtime himself, that is a serious reason to find another reason for dismissal!

The solution to both problems is the Sales Development Program which is the best sales development and error management system I have built to date.

Why are systems so important? Can't everyone make their own?

In the days they say "how's work going?" They are essentially asking "how are sales going?" and most say they are not doing well while few say so and so. Everyone is looking for a new way to sell, a system. I'll ask you a very simple question to make it easier to understand: can you or your wife make a burger better than Macdonald's? Of course you can! Next question: better burger vending system than Macdonald's can you do? No. 1 restaurant chain worldwide with over 30.000 stores. This is the value of the system.

In 2018 and living in an age where technology, smartphones and the internet play a dominant role, what would you say is the impact of all this on the subject you deal with in your book? 

The years we are going through are difficult in many ways, everything is changing at a frightening speed. We live in the digital age and the professional who keeps up with technology and is positive about new ideas is the one who wins over his competitors!

Your plans for the future? Is there, perhaps, a new book you have "in the works"?

I plan to write two more books. One will concern Franchising, due to my thesis and my employment in franchise stores, and the other will concern network marketing due to my long-term involvement in the industry.