World-class sales pros in short supply

By Jay J Bileti
STI International – Arizona, LLC

Nearly every business is precisely as successful as its sales activities. Competition is intense, competitive advantages have a short shelf life and companies with skilled, trained sales organizations tend to finish on top.

Over the last 20 years there have been a number of ground-breaking research studies into the behaviors of top sales professionals. Traditional sales training is available from a number of suppliers and most sales professionals have been exposed to a variety of time-tested selling skills. Recent research, however, suggests that times have changed. Today’s world-class sales professional needs to develop new skills, update existing skills and abandon some obsolete tactics from the past.

In 2007, The Chally Group published “Achieve Sales Excellence,” which summarizes a 14-year research study involving interviews with 80,000 business-to-business customers and 210,000 salespeople in 15 industries. The results clearly demonstrate that recent changes in our business environment such as merger mania, outsourcing, globalization and information technology (particularly the existence of the internet) have dramatically changed the relationship between buyers and sellers.  Two of the more surprising conclusions are that, on average, 39 percdent of buyers’ decision criteria are based upon the salesperson’s competence and that less than 1 percent of the salespeople these customers come in contact with could be described as world class. The salesperson is the sale and, as a group, they are not meeting the expectations of their customers.

Clearly, salespeople need to improve and update their skills. Common sense, a winning personality and product knowledge are no longer enough to ensure success. According to the research, today’s top sales pro needs to

• Act as an “outsourced manager” of the solution they provide
• Understand the customer’s business and the business of their customers
• Be the customer’s advocate within the salesperson’s company
• Bring solutions rather than products, sell value rather than features
• Understand and communicate Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, ROI and payback periods
• Be an accessible problem-solver
• Be innovative in responding to customer’s needs 

Progressive sales training companies have kept pace with the changes in the business environment and the skills required for today’s world class sales professionals. It is definitely time to upgrade and modernize the skills of your sales team.

For more information about training your sales staff, e-mail jbileti(at)salesinstitute.com.