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WORLD CLASS COMPETENCIES
BY Conrad Elnes, Senior Trainer
Member: “Who’s Who Of Sales Thought Leaders”
Imagine how your life might be improved if it were possible to clone World Class sales people and place a few of them on your staff. Clearly impossible, but the next best thing is described in this Discussion Topic. Let's look at two competencies your salespeople can apply immediately as they progress toward World Class.
THE ISSUE: HOW TO DEVELOP WORLD CLASS SALESPEOPLE Beginning in the mid-1980s, and continuing until now, many organizations have conducted studies designed to discover the secrets of high-performance sales people, and many of them released their results to the public. A few of the more notable studies were completed by the Forum Corporation, Harvard Business School, the Huthwaite Organization, Gallup Consulting, Tracom Corporation, and recently, the Chally Group. In all, I have analyzed the research results of nearly twenty groups while seeking to identify the real secrets of high performance.
As I compared the research results on a spread sheet, 16 competencies stood out. I'll describe a couple of them here. Discuss them during a sales meeting, and ask your salespeople to apply them immediately. THE SOLUTION: TWO HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATTRIBUTESThe first attribute was identified in nearly every study - A Partnering Approach With Customers. Skills such as the following may be included:
- Speak a customer's "language."
- Create and sustain trust.
- Know their business and their customers' business.
- "Treat customers the way they want you to treat them." (David Merrill, PhD.)
- Be accessible.
- Behave in a reliable manner.
- Set and achieve realistic expectations.
There are many other partnering skills. Discuss various ways to employ partnering to enliven several sales meetings and measurably move your staff toward World Class.
Although the second attribute wasn't identified as frequently, its place in the list is unchallengeable. Discuss its application with your staff.
"Attunement," as its name suggests, means applying diagnostic skills (probing) until you understand the buyer's situation as well as he/she does. This is "situation attunement." During your presentation, use your in-depth knowledge to describe your solution in ways that help a buyer clearly envision their problem as solved. This is "solution attunement," and it creates a highly emotional and motivational presentation. It also reduces the number and severity of objections and stalls.
Attunement sounds easier to achieve than it is. The "Fix-It" factor leads sales people to try to "fix" buyers' situations before they fully reach attunement. At your next sales meeting ask a few volunteers to role play; you act as a cooperative buyer. Imagine and reveal a need, and see how long each of them probes before trying to "fix-it." Did any of them reach attunement with you? If not, they probably aren't reaching attunement with their real prospects.
Devoting a few minutes at each sales meeting to discuss and practice these two attributes will pay off big time for you, your company and your sales people as they progress toward World Class.
ACHIEVE ALL 16 COMPETENCIESThe two attributes just described - Partnering and Attunement - are contained in our list of sixteen competencies. It is essential that your staff perform at peak levels in all, and I'll be happy to explain our program for assessing their present levels and training them for greater success. Please contact me.Conrad Elnes STI International®
Email: celnes@salesinstitute.com Phone: 800.784.1552
Web: http://www.salesinstitute.com
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