To begin understanding sales competency Antonio Brown Rush Jersey , you have to begin with the ultimate assumptions about professional selling. Can we all agree that professional selling is ultimately:
1 - Grounded to a buyer(s) behavior and decision process?
2 - Focused on helping a transaction occur?
3 - Bound by an ethical responsibility to do ?what is right??
If we can all agree on these things from all sides of the table we can begin to dissect the sales profession step by step using the system's approach. If the buyer, marketing, purchasing, and even HR professionals can agree to this, then we can begin to arrive at a common definition of 'sales competency.? Obviously Derek Carr Rush Jersey , this is a long way away. Though I have worked on the definition of ?what? professional selling competency is for six years, I still have work to do toframe it up all the way.
Sales competency is ultimately defined as a salesperson's knowledge, skill, abilities, and values. All four components must be in alignment to the customer in order for a sales professional to become competent. Because competence is defined as knowledge Bo Jackson Rush Jersey , skill, abilities, and values, sales professionals have a difficult job ahead of them if they wish to become better. Becoming better is not easy and most sales organizations do not provide adequate training to cover the breadth of competency ? because it has never really been defined before.
Effective sales professionals are continuously learning and they have developed a framework and process for accessing their knowledge. They have a solid "knowledge foundation" and they understand their strengths and weaknesses. Because skill is determined by the knowledge a salesperson has gained plus their experience level, salespeople do get better over time. But it takes too long in almost everyone's opinion. Sales Management wishes that sales people would ?ramp up? quicker. Sales people wish they could sell more Hunter Renfrow Jersey , faster. The buyer wishes that all salespeople were ?competent? and reliable.
Some of the most skilled sales professionals have stayed in one vertical market or industry for a longer period of time. They have also stayed in the same sales role for a longer length of time (such as outside sales). Why? They have followed a defined career path with increasing levels of responsibility and complexity of sale and they have been able to gain effectiveness, efficiency, and competency.
Ironically, a 'truly? competent salesperson would have the ability to move into any organization and gain the trust of the buying decision-makers. They would be able to create a situation where buying can occur within an ethical environment at a fair price no matter who they worked for. They would have the knowledge to speak to a CEO, the front-line manager Foster Moreau Jersey , or the newest employee about what issues and challenges they face almost immediately ? no matter what vertical market they served.
They way to get there is to strive and push to increase your knowledge, skill, and ability so you can be the best at what you do.
To accomplish this, you need a framework. Since 1999, I have been personally interviewing hundreds of salespeople and I have been a ?bag carryingquota carrying salesperson. I have also been vigorously studying the sales professional as part of Ph.D. research. My dissertation and final Ph.D. publication will be on the area of individual selling competency. The remaining part of this book offers you an important framework that many salespeople have leveraged to succeed Isaiah Johnson Jersey , gain more confidence, and attain their greatest accomplishments in selling.
The Components of Salesperson Competency
For anyone in any profession, they usually seek to become better. To do this, they must first start with an objective analysis of where they currently are and where they want to be. They must objectively analyze their performance against existing benchmarks from their organization or from their professional trade association. They must understand what their current performance 'situation? is and where they need to be. They need to understand who their performance is impacting.
For professional salespeople, they must objectively ascertain:
What results are currently being achieved?
What results are desired of me?
ow large is the gap between my current situation and the expectations?
What is that impact of that gap? To myself Maxx Crosby Jersey , to my employer, to others?
The goal for you, then (as an individual sales professional) is to understand what you can control and improve upon in order to close the performance gap.
If there is a gap in performance, the goal then is to clearly understand why that gap exists. Perhaps you don't have the right information or support. Perhaps you don't have the time or ability to perform all the work that needs to be done. Maybe the rewards in place are not giving you the proper incentives. These are ?external? causes of the performance gap that you may not be able to control (and are usually the purview of your management team).
Usually, a gap in performance that you can control stems from the absence of the right activities Trayvon Mullen Jersey , beliefs, or competencies that will lead to the desired level of performance.
Activities are visible outputs that you create as a salesperson. These outputs can take the form of something communicated, something thought, or something created.
Beliefs are internal thought patterns that lead you to accept something as 'true?, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons (i.e. that all salespeople are bad people Johnathan Abram Jersey , etc)
Competencies are comprised of your knowledge, your ability, and your skill
Abilities are defined as the quality of being able to do something, either physically or mentally (like drive a car).