Sales Professional—Really?

By -
Let’s start out with the premise you are actively engaged in selling.  Your card may carry a slightly different title.  It seems like nobody has a card with the title “Sales Professional.”  Instead, you could be listed as any one of the following:
  • Sales Engineer
  • Field Engineer
  • Account Manager
  • Account Executive
  • Product Specialist
  • Customer Service Resource
  • Branch Manager
  • Inside Sales
  • Channel Manager
  • Customer Omnibus Person
  • Business Development





But somewhere in the details of your job description, you are measured on your ability to grow the number of purchases made by customers under your direction. 
This makes you a Sales Professional.

As a professional, you have the intrinsic responsibility to perform better than someone who is a selling amateur.

With this fact in mind, we must ask the question: “What are you doing to improve your professional skills?"

We ask this question often and the answers are shocking.  Most salespeople immediately refer to product-based training and their propensity to study catalogs.  But when we refocus the question back on to the actual art and science of selling, they stammer.

A few reach way back to a day-long session they attended years ago.  Some will even argue that their selling is entirely derived from their product skills and insist their customers don’t respond to “cheap” selling tactics.

Allow me to point out our kind of selling is different from the approaches used by those hawking aluminum siding, cell phones or water beds.  This alleviates the need for sleaze
ball old school techniques once touted by self-proclaimed selling gurus.  Things like the “four wall close” and the “yes, yes, yes close” taught during the 1970s no longer work in our business; assuming they ever did.  But there are best practices worth exploring.

Well-developed questions identified ahead of a sales call pay dividends.  Assembling account data (things like products produced, processes employed, cost drivers and known production issues) is even more important today than ever.  Understanding the competition and their perceived importance to the customer is critical.  Targeting of customers is a later day must do.  We could go on for hours but suffice it to say, there are important skills to improve.

The question for sellers becomes “where do you get information on improving?”  I believe it rarely comes via our own intellect.  One need only look to other professions employing smart people for proof of this concept.

Doctors are required to read medical journals and attend conferences for their chosen field of medicine.  My friend is a high end commercial Real Estate Appraiser who must attend hours of continuing education each year.  Certified Financial Planners, college professors, lawyers and many other “professionals” participate in ongoing training.

I believe ongoing sales skill training “trumps” a day-long event.  Whether good or bad, the nature of today’s world has conditioned most of us to learn in shorter duration events, a few minutes (maybe an hour) of new thoughts loaded into our mind does more to allow us to ponder and implement new ideas.

Never before has there been such a plethora of information available to those in our profession.  Amazon offers up thousands of books aimed specifically at our industry.  (I personally recommend Dave Kahle’s How to Excel in Distributor Sales to anyone who will listen.)  There are tons of distributor specific selling ideas available in distributor trade publications.  And, lest I forget to include a totally self-serving plug, this blog and others like it have massive content.

Don’t like to read?  There are plenty of videos on YouTube and podcasts to keep you busy.  Why not use some of your windshield time to “load your mind” with great ideas?

Now back the question I always ask… “What are you doing to improve your professional skills?”
 
And a question for our readers…

Do you feel you would benefit if this information was available in podcast format?

Drop us a line with your opinion!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Dance of Onboarding: Integrating New Hires into Your Corporate Culture

By -
Image
Have you ever tried to waltz or swing dance with someone who couldn't match your rhythm or didn't know the steps? It can become a clash of styles or cultures, or, worse—somebody gets their toes stepped on. A similar thing can happen when a new hire doesn't quite 'get' the culture. Much like dancing, though, skills can be learned. I recently facilitated a panel on Cultural Quotient (CQ) where we discussed best practices for increasing CQ. This involved intentional learning, self-awareness of physical cues such as body language and personal space, and the willingness to adapt to new cultures. I have some amusing stories about what not to do based on experiences with insensitive former colleagues. However, it's more productive to focus on how employers can improve the onboarding experience and subsequently enhance retention and employee engagement by welcoming people into their corporate culture. Maybe someday in person, over drinks, I'll share a funny story o...
Read more

50 Questions for Distributors

By -
Image
Last week I wrote an article titled “Six Questions that Demand an Answer.”  Sharing the article with a few trusted advisers, I received one consistent bit of feedback best summarized by this response. “Frank, I agree these are questions we must ask ourselves; they caused me to pause and ponder.  I used them as an exercise with my team to think about our overall strategy.  I believe taking the time to think about our business from an outside perspective to be justified and worthwhile.   Sometimes it’s hard to do this subjectively.  I would like to see more questions just like these.” The following is my first round of questions.  I have put them into categories to make them easier to digest.  Some will apply to your position, some will not.  I suggest spending a moment visiting these topics with members of your own team. A note:  The readers of this blog come from a variety of backgrounds, hold a diverse collection of positio...
Read more

Ship and Debit Programs

By -
Image
Special Pricing Agreement and Thoughts about Ship and Debit Programs Click here for a brief tutorial on Ship and Debit Programs. Special Pricing Agreements (SPA) have been around for a very long time. The concept is simple; a manufacturer uses their distribution channel as a vehicle to service a customer who requires very low pricing to match some commercial situation. The details of the commercial situation aren’t really all that pertinent. They can arise due to customer potential, competitive pricing pressure, or supply contracts driven with large mega-corporations. The point is normal distributor margins no longer support the selling price and the distributor plays a critical role in providing some service to the customer. In years gone by, distributors involved in these situations purchased products earmarked for the special priced customer at sub-distributor price levels. The freshly purchased (at lower than normal cost) products were either brought “into stock” to sell...
Read more