Is your Sales Team an Asset Appreciating in Value?

Today's blog post is by one of our partners, Julie Thomas, CEO of ValueSelling Associates, LLC. Please visit Julie's blog.

High performing sales professionals, in all industries, tend to have some common traits. In my experience, those traits include competitiveness, resilience, tenacity, and empathy. But there is another common factor among world-class sales professionals. That characteristic is the ability to assimilate information to learn and continuously improve.

The sales professionals who hunger for knowledge, skill and exploiting best practices will be the sales professionals that outperform the masses in every industry. They realize that nothing happens in a vacuum; the dynamics of their customer’s industry and their own marketplace are changing every day. So what led to our success in the past may not necessarily guarantee their success in the future.

They also understand that in today’s economic environment, survival in sales is a sort of survival of the fittest. Just as in nature, those who don’t adapt and evolve to the current conditions will become extinct. Changing behavior and executing the right skills in this environment will separate the order takers from the true sales professionals.

Do you have the right skills to succeed? Some of the key skills to compete and gain new customers include:

1. Demonstrating your business acumen and becoming a consultant rather than a vendor. Consultants solve business problems that matter while sales people push products and services that may or may not be relevant.
   
2. Engaging in relevant conversations that add value to executive decision makers. Not only is it important to gain access, but it is more important than ever to maintain access as the decision process becomes prolonged due to the economy.
   
3. Qualifying prospects and managing the entire sales process. Are you chasing garbage trucks hoping to find a gold nugget or have you determined where the bank vault is and how to access it?
   
4. Differentiating yourself and the value you can contribute to the vast array of alternatives facing your prospects.

These four skills are easy to understand yet often difficult for sales professionals to execute. It requires training, leadership, role modeling and coaching for adults to improve their skills and change their behavior. Successful sales people know that if they are going to succeed and add value to their employers – the must adapt and invest in themselves.

The companies that will survive this economy have recognized this key investment in their sales organization is critical. If the sales people don’t have the confidence or skill to be successful – they won’t be.

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