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5 Skills Critical to a Sales Professional’s Success in Today’s economy: Equipping Your Team to Succeed

Guest post by: Nancy Bleeke

Article Overview: It might seem like it’s a different sales world out there today compared to just a few years ago. At Sharpenz we believe there are five skills critical to a sales professional’s success in this economy: prospecting, working through objections, problem solving, articulating value and following a sales system. Here’s a brief description of each:

5 Skills Critical to a Sales Professional’s Success in Today’s economy: Equipping Your Team to Succeed

It might seem like it's a different sales world out there today. You're probably being asked to drive results from a sales team that is possibly feeling beat up. Customers are seeking more concessions than ever before, and you are being asked to produce the same sales - if not more - with less of everything, from people to budgets to promotional materials.

In today's economy, we've heard from many sales leaders worldwide that more sellers than ever aren't making quotas, they have dejected sales teams, or their competition is discounting so much it's hard to compete and stay in business. And for a lucky few, sales are on track and they want to finish the year even stronger.

At Sharpenz we believe there are five skills critical to a sales professional's success in this economy: prospecting, working through objections, problem solving, articulating value and following a sales system. Here's a brief description of each:

Prospecting is proactively initiating contact with prospective buyers, including gaining referrals, cold calls, networking, trade show work, and so much more. You need to have contacts to make a sale.

Working through objections or concerns is important because there have always been objections in sales - is today really different? The objections might be stronger or different - but skilled sales professionals know how to work through them.

Articulating value is placing the focus entirely on your customer. It's focusing on Wiift: "What's in it for them?" in relation to their POWN's... Problems Opportunities, Wants or Needs.

Problem solving is the skill of identifying problems and then reducing or eliminating them for prospects. Linking today's problems and outcomes to the prospect's business strategy sets the sales professionals apart.

Following a systematic approach to sales is along the adage of "practice makes perfect." The key is finding a system that accomplishes the task and then duplicating it over and over. A system brings consistency, efficiency and better results.

These are the five skills we believe are critical for sales professionals to thrive in today's economy. In future posts we'll go into more detail about each and give you tips and hints to help you equip your sales team to succeed.

Do these five skills ring true with you? If you think we should add more to the list, let us know in the Comments section.

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Article Tags: better sales meetings, sales booster, sales managers training, sales meeting ideas, sales professionals training, sales team training, sales training, sales workshops
Referred by: http://www.michelepw.com/



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Re: Books for Business Owners - Hi DougSchadle, Thanks for sharing your favorite business book with us! A good book I'm reading now is "Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed" by Brian Tracy as it was a birthday gift from a friend. Tracy's book is helpful in identifying what's important in your life and then setting an action plan to achieve it.
Napoleon on Project Management - Why do I include this in a list of books aimed at female entrepreneurs? Well...in the expectation that there are as many female history buffs as male ones, and in the belief that anyone interested in history will find this book fascinating, while those interested in project management will learn a thing or two. I think this was the first "gimmick" book - an author using a historical figure (usually a male, military figure, it must be admitted) to talk about modern day business management. I refuse to read any of the kind that advocates - even obliquely - the techniques of the Sopranos or the Mossad - but these military ones are pretty fun. Anyway: Only in the understanding of history, Napoleon might say, do we gain an understanding of strategy in the present. In the same spirit, Napoleon on Project Management offers the recipe for successfully managing your commitments using the strategies, tactics and priorities that propelled Napoleon himself to victory. [The book doesn't gloss over how Napolean eventually fell in defeat, of course, and there's lessons to be learned there as well. TOC Foreword by Douglas James Allan (Napoleanic Society of America) 1. The Rise to Power -The Skills to Succeed -A Compelling Vision -Diplomacy and Networking -Lessons from the Great Campaigns 2. Napoleon's 6 Winning Principles -Introduction -Exactitude -Speed -Flexibility -Simplicity -Character -Moral Force 3. The Downfall -What Went Wrong -Lessons from the Russian Invasion and Waterloo -The Four Critical Warning Signs -Napoleon's Legacy
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Don't give up 40%! - Congrats on this milestone Evan... I agree with outsourcing any function that makes the business owner a Front-line worker as this is not best use of your time. I also agree with Louis that 40% is too much to give up. 40% may work if you have surpassed your income goals from the website and after you pay the 40% you are still within your monthly income goals. Would an RFP/RFI (Request For Proposal/Information) to companies like this Website Sales Team be a call you need to make?
niche forum categories - I think Kevin just touched on the point that I was going make... and that is developing 'categories' that stick. Sales and Marketing may be too broad for example. However I can almost guarantee you that you would see many more sign-ups if you tailored a category to 'internet marketing' for newbies. I've seen this work on other forums, however, [i:1i903wkn]it can get a little frantic[/i:1i903wkn]... Fine tuning the categories, or expanding the scope should be effective. I think a lot of IM folks are surfing right on by because they're not finding what they're looking for here... Just a few thoughts: Better Blogging Developing Info Products Internet Marketing Presentation Skills More How to's Another point is... a lot of people don't know that they can benefit from participating in forums. The signature links to their site - if they have one - can / should be motivation enough to get more involved. The more internet savvy members that have signatures seem to stick around more... Don't you think?


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