The thrust of the last two issues of the SalesPulse has been keeping selling simple. We have done this for two very good reasons. Firstly, the simpler it is the less it can go wrong, and secondly many companies have very few, or no sales people at all, and to get maximum benefit from your customer facing people, they, you and your company would benefit from knowing how to sell. Why do I say this?
Let’s start by examining what customer facing people do. Whether they are technicians, architects, support engineers, consultants or lawyers, they all have one thing in common. That is helping customers solve problems. What do good sales people do? Well, they help customers solve problems too. These sets of people do their jobs differently but should all have the same output and that is a delighted customer. These non-sales people sell everyday as well. They may not know it but they do. For example, they:
– might be persuading someone to come round to their way of thinking
– might be convincing someone that their old car is worth more than the potential buyer thinks it is.
– it might be that someone says they do not have the time to do something and they demonstrate how they can find the time
So, sales people and non-sales professionals have quite a few things in common; solving customers’ problems, delighting them in the process and on the whole they can all sell, albeit subconsciously for some.
So how do we go about getting non sales people to sell. Most business professionals have acquired a skill set, so the ability and desire to learn another is a key criterion. The knowledge and skills required to sell are significantly easier to learn, than those of say a computer scientist or an accountant. Having said that, some sales skills will help hone and augment people’s professional skills. So assuming they have an aptitude for it selling could be quite straight forward. Aptitude is an appropriate word, but is probably wrong. The characteristic that separates great business people, and in this I include great sales people from the average, is attitude.
There are three simple requirements to creating professionals who can sell:
– having the ability and desire to learn
– having the right attitude, and
– acquiring sales skills. This point we will cover in the next issue of the SalesPulse
The advantages of taking this approach are:
– whether or not you have sales people you will have more sales aware and skilled people working with your customers
– you will be offering career development and options for those people who will not get through the glass ceiling
– for those companies with sales teams you can use this approach to “grow your own” new sales people, reducing recruitment/replacement costs, and most importantly
– your business results will improve
Is there a simpler way to develop a business?
Reproduced with the permission of Koru Consulting Ltd.