Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2008 - (Page 7) SMART SALES BY DAVE STEIN When sales 101 isn’t enough Reps who lack advanced selling skills are at a major disadvantage hen you think about it, we’re all after the same goals—winning more business, sooner, and at higher contract values and margins. To that end, it appears there’s no shortage of sales training programs for companies seeking to improve their teams’ selling capabilities. Yet with most companies we’ve worked with or researched, there are distinct gaps among the skill sets of their salespeople. They’re well equipped to carry out certain tasks, but woefully unprepared for others. Here are some basic selling (sales 101) skills: W ■■the long-term relationship with a strategic account. There just isn’t enough sales skills training going on, or—for that matter—the right training. A 2007 DePaul University study reported that only 43% of companies responding said they had a formal sales training program. Of those, only 50% provided sales skills training. The sales training that does take place is mostly sales 101-basic selling skills. Scant attention is paid to the advanced selling capabilities I listed. The obvious problem is, sales 101 skills will only get your people so far. Those skills can’t provide you with DAVE STEIN IS THE AUTHOR OF HOW WINNERS SELL AND CEO AND FOUNDER OF ES RESEARCH GROUP IN WEST TISBURY, MASS. (WWW.ESRESEARCH.COM). HE CAN BE CONTACTED VIA E-MAIL AT EDIT@ SALESANDMARKETING.COM. Managing a territory. Cold-calling. ■Planning and executing an end-to-end sales campaign. ■Uncovering and understanding the customer’s business challenges and opportunities. ■Planning and executing a successful meeting with a prospect. ■Articulating their company’s value proposition to customer executives. ■Delivering a presentation about their company, their products and basic information about their customer’s business. ■Following their company’s sales processes. ■Gaining an understanding of their competition’s company and products. ■Managing objections. ■Negotiating. ■Closing. Here’s a selection of advanced selling capabilities: Determining the competition’s selling strategies and devising effective counterstrategies. ■Successfully employing competitive selling tactics, such as setting traps and immunizing the customer against a competitor’s negative selling. ■Linking the strategic value of a product or service to the customer’s long-term business objectives. ■Identifying, recruiting and leveraging politically powerful people to influence an evaluation team or decision-maker. ■Employing personal capital to effect an introduction to the CEO of a targeted company. ■Being seen as a trusted peer by customer executives. ■Last but certainly not least, effectively managing ■what your team needs to consistently and predictably outsell your competitors. What happens when you have four companies with basically comparable offerings competing for the same business, and none of the salespeople managing the deals have the advanced selling capabilities mentioned above? Decisions are then made on price, features, a sexy demo or the most well-known brand. It’s a toss-up as to who is going to win. But if one company’s sales team possesses the advanced capabilities on my list above, how do you think they’re going to do? You got it: They’ll likely win. Admittedly, not every salesperson needs advanced selling skills to be successful. But if you’re in a complex selling environment and haven’t provided your salespeople with the skills required to win, you’re just asking for them to be outsold. IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS, TIPS OR TECHNIQUES THAT IMPROVE SALES PERFORMANCE, BE SURE TO VISIT www.smmsoundoff.com YOUR IDEAS AND EXPERIENCES. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 AND SHARE www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 7 http://WWW.ESRESEARCH.COM http://www.smmsoundoff.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com
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