6 Steps to Sales Mastery

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not - By Dave Kurlan

Salespeople must evolve through six levels of development before they can consistently and successfully execute any process, concept, strategy or tactic they are trained and coached to perform. The six levels are:

Listening
Understanding
Internalizing
Embracing
Attempting
Mastering

If there are hiccups at any one of those levels, they may continue on to the next level, but with an improper balance. For example, if they weren't listening carefully, and didn't quite hear the entire message, they will inappropriately approach the next 5 levels. If they listened but understood the message differently from the way it was intended, the next 4 levels will be wrong. If they listened and understood, but selected a poor frame of reference for internalizing the message, they probably won't embrace it.

Let's assume that they have properly advanced through the level of embracing. The key level of evolving takes place at the level of attempting.

Some salespeople never evolve from level 4, embracing to level 5, attempting. This is where underlying weaknesses have the most affect. Those hidden, underlying weaknesses cause discomfort and hesitancy - preludes to lack of confidence - preventing them from taking what they believe to be a big risk. Objective Management Group's work in this area, and the deep and wide sales force evaluations they conduct, help shine light on these hidden weaknesses. I have written a series of articles on the science, data and research behind this work.

Others make the attempt, but they are uncomfortable and do it poorly. and their undesirable result may cause them to give up right then and there. Finally, after making several attempts, some fail to master the concepts and continue to practice them poorly without improvement.

Keep in mind that this process takes place for each and every concept, strategy, tactic and method that they learn. Many clients ask why it takes so long - so many months - to train and develop salespeople. The concepts can be taught in a day. But the other 5 steps to evolving take months, especially getting them over the weaknesses that prevent them from attempting and executing. There are two ways to convey these concepts and most companies, in a great hurry to fix things, choose the comfortable, rather than effective option!

Feed them with a fire hose via a one or two day seminar and perhaps reinforce it quarterly, semi-annually or annually.
Present the fire hose but don't spray it down their throats. Spoon feed and reinforce daily through coaching, bi-weekly or monthly via follow up training, and don't ever stop. Hold them accountable for the six levels each and every day.

How many of your salespeople have evolved to mastery?

Why not more of them? Whose fault is it?

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Free PDF Download
Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website
Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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