It is fairly common knowledge that even today, in most industries, a very high percentage of training budgets are spent on “product knowledge” workshops and training sessions. This is understandable to a degree particularly in the more technical sectors, but what about all the other types of “knowledge”?

The task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with - i.e. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment that arrived with the new millennium must, in my view, respond to those realities.

Today’s clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be business partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process not just simply demonstrate products.

Ongoing research demonstrates that to-day’s ‘average’ salesperson is just as effective as the high performer in explaining features and benefits effectively, relating a service or product to customer needs and closing a sale. But, above this Level 1 plateau of competence, the exceptional salesperson is busy defining the “basic skills of tomorrow”. This includes broad based business knowledge, industry knowledge, sector knowledge, knowledge of one’s own company and of course knowledge of oneself.

It is suggested that 84% of buying decisions are based on emotion – if that really is the case buyers will not buy because they like us but rather that they trust us. Logically, we are far more likely to trust someone if we sense synergy, if the seller talks our language and if they are “knowledgeable”!

Summary:

So what did my “new breed” of salesperson look like? For a start he or she progressed from the more traditional, ‘lone ranger’ approach of selling to a more team-based consultative style. I determined that a consultative salesperson needed to fulfil three basic roles, that of Business Consultant, Long Term Ally and Strategic Orchestrator. By combining all three roles salespeople are more able to develop and maintain long-term relationships with clients.

However, all of this was built on a simple platform – a simple formula:

Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success.