Sales Core Competencies I

Sales Core Competencies I
Posted by Tony Cole on Wed, Dec 03, 2008


I work with CEOs that are afraid of what the current economic environment will do to top line sales revenue. Certainly they can get more creative with expenses, but eventually that will have a negative impact on leveraging new opportunities. It doesn't take talent to cut expenses; it is a math formula. However, it does take talent and creativity to drive new business sales when markets are like they are today. That is where we come in.

At Anthony Cole Training Group, we use an assessment built and constantly perfected by Objective Management Group. The assessment and the resulting findings provides information about sales strengths, sales weaknesses and sale skills as they relate to 21 core sales competencies. My question today, and in 2 additional blog posts, will be: How are you addressing these core competencies in your sales development program (either individually or corporately?) If you are reading this as a participant of one or our training programs, then this information will have a tone of familiarity, so you will be able to relate to the content. However, you may have been more recently focused on technique rather than the core issues that may be hindering your sales success. I encourage you to read these posts and identify how they can be additive to your current program. If you are not one of our participants, feel free to go to our website and take the sales grader to find out how you are doing against best practices in sales. Here are the first 7 core competencies:
Has written goals: this is where your courage and passion come from. Without written goals you won't have the passion or commitment necessary to ask the tough questions, continue to prospect when the market is tough and to consistently ask for introductions
Follows a written goal plan: Often people have goals that are written, but then fail this next critical step - establish a written goal plan. Without a plan your goals lack clarity and therefore the activity required to accomplish your goals is unclear as well. And when the required activities are unclear then they won't get executed.
Positive attitude: This isn't about looking through rose colored glasses. This is about keeping your head about you when all those around you are losing theirs. It is easy to get caught up the water cooler talk and the complaining about the company, economy, or what the competition is doing. Ignore the talk and focus on what you have to do to be successful.
Take responsibility: Excuses are like opinions - everyone or most everyone has them and, unfortunately in selling, we use them when we fail to accomplish our goals. The easy thing to do is to blame something or someone for our shortcomings. If you've been in sales long enough you know that something is always going to happen to make selling difficult for you, but if you are committed to your own personal goals, then you won't let anything get in the way.
Strong self confidence: This is critical to succeed. You certainly can't expect yourself to perform well if you don't feel fully confident in what you are doing, what you are representing and what you are saying to the market. But what drives all of this is how you feel about yourself. You must have the confidence to maintain your ‘posture' when you are faced with difficult selling situations. Keep in mind that external gimmicks and crutches won't support you when things are tough. You must consider yourself a ‘10' and maintain that assessment of yourself no matter what happens in your roles.
Supportive beliefs: What you believe dictates what you do. If you believe that the economy is too tough to sell in, then you'll be right and won't sell anything. If you believe that people don't want to talk about spending additional dollars in a tight budget environment, then you will have trouble scheduling appointments. You get the point?
Control emotions: You must focus on executing your sales system and be prepared for curve balls, and ‘tough' questions. If you anticipate ‘what can go wrong' then when something does come at you that ordinarily would be considered unusual then you will be prepared to handle the situation. If you haven't thought through your phone call, or sales call or presentation, then you will be vulnerable to surprises. When these surprises happen, instead of continuing to execute without ‘panic', you will ‘choke' and deviate from your tried and true sales methods and approach. The symptoms of losing control of emotions are during review of a meeting your self-dialog contains words and phrases like: "should have, shouldn't have, could have, why didn't I, I can't believe that". These are indicative of losing control of emotions.

The best thing to do is to pick just one of these that seem to be the area where you need the most work. Tackle that one first. Not the one that is easy, but the one that will have the most positive dramatic impact on your business. And if you need me call me @ 513 791 3458.

http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/Sales-Training-Sales-Brew/bid/6952/Sales-Core-Competencies-I

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Sales Core Competencies II

Continuing our discussion around sales core competencies, something has come to my mind that just has to be asked and that is this: How do you spend your time now when it comes to professional development? Aside from any company sponsored development program you might attend, what else do you do and what do you focus on? Certainly, continuing to learn the technicalities of your business is critical, but in all the years I've been working with sales people, no one has ever told me they lost the deal because they where technically unprepared. The reason people lose business typically is due to lack of sales ‘know how', or lack of preparation for the sales aspect of the meeting. E.g failing to help the prospect overcome objections, inability to overcome price issues, failure to undo the current relationship and the inability to get someone to act. These are the symptoms dealing with the core competencies where you should address your attention to when working on ‘fixing' the choke points in your sales system.

Next 7 core competencies:
No need for approval - People, by their very nature or nurture, have a need for approval. It's part of the DNA or part of what they've been taught. This need for approval has an impact on how we conduct our business. If we would rather be liked (don't want to upset the prospect, don't want to make them mad, don't want to come across as aggressive, fear of saying the wrong thing) then we won't have the fierce conversations that Susan Scott talks about in her book Fierce conversations. We won't challenge people and their closely held beliefs and, certainly when someone tells us they want to think about it, we will let them. Of all the core competencies that can impact your success in effectively closing business, this, along with buy cycle, is the most important one to address.
Recovers from rejection - It isn't about fear of rejection, most of us have some level of that in all situations. The issue is what happens next? How long does it take you to recover? If you hear no at 10:00 AM and you are still whining about it at 2:00 PM then you have a problem that WILL impact your ability to perform with great posture and high esteem.
Comfortable talking about money - As bizarre as this may sound for sales people, sales people are collectively guilty of not talking about money at the appropriate time, and usually have a tough time sticking to suggested pricing (that's another issue). The symptom of the money issue is when a sales person hears money objections during the presentation. This is a clear indication that a sales person either has learned, incorrectly, that getting budget issues out of the way is not important in their sales process, or they are uncomfortable talking about it. If you have money objections or ‘think it overs' about money at time of presentation, you need to address this core competency.
Supportive buy cycle - We all have a ‘buying cycle' and this cycle is either supportive of EFFECTIVE selling or inhibiting to hit. Let me make this as simple as I can. If you like to think things over, you will be vulnerable to letting prospects do the same thing. Thinking it over is not part of an ‘effective selling' strategy. Yes, you might eventually get the business; but we want to focus on effective selling. If you allow think it overs, shopping, and looking for low price, you must identify if you, in fact, do the same things when you buy.
Consistent, effective prospecting - In Dave Kurlan's book "Baseline Selling' this is what has to happen to get to first base. More importantly, it is the consistent nature of your prospecting that is more important than the effective. If you prospect consistently enough, you will get suspects to turn into prospects. Only once you begin to prospect consistently does it make sense for us to talk about becoming more effective. If your pipeline has opportunities that seem to be stuck, it is probably a result of inconsistent prospecting, as much as a problem of qualifying.
Reaches decision makers - Your ability to get to decisions at the beginning of the sales process is critical in your ability to quickly qualify and close more business, more quickly at higher margins. If you don't get to decision makers, then you are setting yourself up for long sales cycles, lower closing ratios, and endless time spent on prospecting contacts that cannot tell you YES.
Effective questioning and listening - If there is one ‘skill' that is critical to effective selling it is effective questioning and listening. This is where it all begins as you deliver your positioning statement on the phone, and continues as you conduct your initial appointment with a new suspect. Here is a key to becoming more effective at the questioning part of this core competency: Pre-plan your meeting and write down the specific questions you will ask to qualify the prospect. The key to listening - stop thinking, stop writing notes immediately when the suspect is talking. Listen to understand. Digest the information. Ask permission to write the IMPORTANT information down.

So there you have the next 7 of 21 core competencies. If you would like some information about some of these core competencies call our office, mention this blog post and ask for an account to listen to some of our self - directed library modules. (513 791 3458)


http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/Sales-Training-Sales-Brew/bid/6966/Sales-Core-Competencies-II


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7 More Sales Core Competencies
Posted by Tony Cole on Wed, Feb 04, 2009


In 2008, I posted two blogs covering 14 of the 21 core competencies identified by the Objective Management Group Sales Person Assessment. Between then and now, much has taken place that I've written about, and as I fly from Atlanta to Portland, Oregon I have some time to write about the remaining 7 core competencies. I know that you've been waiting with baited breath.

1. Early bonding and rapport: The ability to quickly establish confidence and trust in the first meeting, rather than taking several meetings to develop a strong relationship.

2. Uncovering actual budgets: The skill and the consistency in knowing what the investment parameters are going to be so that you eliminate money, time or resource objections at time of presentation.

3. Discovering why prospects will buy: As elementary as this sounds, most sales people do not find out exactly "why" a prospect will buy. They know what is important, they have an idea of what a prospect will consider or look at, but that is entirely different then knowing exactly why someone will buy. You know that you have this competency when you get decisions instead of "think it overs".

4. Qualifies proposals and quotes. Those that have this competency and execute it consistently will make sure that they will get a decision or, at a minimum, a very clear future once they present. Those with this competency only make proposals and quotes when they know that the prospect is committed to buying.

5. Gets commitments and decision: This competency manifest itself prior to making presentations. It needs to happen once you have uncovered the compelling reasons someone will buy, they've committed to buying, you know the budget issues and you know that you are talking to the decision makers. Once this basis is covered, a great sales person simply asks the prospect to make a decision, yes or no, when the presentation is completed. More importantly, they make the commitment to decide stick.

6. Strong desire for success in selling: this is defined as being passionate about your success. It is someone that enjoys selling. Someone with the appropriate desire is someone that looks forward to generating new relationships and is passionate about pursuing and achieving their goals and the goals of the company. They don't just set goals, they achieve them.

7. Commitment to succeed in selling: I have identified three types of commitment: WIT: Whatever it Takes. WITALAIITU: Whatever it Takes as Long as it Isn't Too Uncomfortable. Coast to Coast: This is when you find yourself just going through the motions. You coast from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. There is only one level of commitment that contributes to extraordinary success: WIT.

Think about these 7 core competencies and how they relate to your ability to execute an effective sales process. These 7, along with the other 14, should be considered the ‘root' causes of your sales issues. If you are to continue your improvement in sales, then you might consider working at the right end of the problem: Theses 21 core competencies of selling.


http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/Sales-Training-Sales-Brew/bid/7757/7-More-Sales-Core-Competencies