#Clientbusiness, #Communication, #Sales, #Strategicselling, #Training | Aug 18, 2020
Over the years, the role of the salesperson has changed. It used to be that a salesperson was there to be a persuader. The customer had little information about a product, and it was the salesperson whose job it was to provide this. The customer was eager to buy; they just had to be persuaded that this was the best way to spend their money. In short, it was a numbers game.
If you could find enough willing customers, you could do well. But these days selling is more about quality than quantity. The modern salesperson is more a business consultant who is there to add maximum value to any transaction.
A successful modern salesperson needs to understand the customer’s business and not just their own product. Spend some time finding out how you can play a strategic role in the customer’s business, promoting their business objectives as well as coming up with innovative solutions to problems, all the while demonstrating value.
This involves being personally effective through being able to manage stress, deadlines, and come up with creative solutions. But it also requires a healthy amount of technical effectiveness. This means salespeople need to be up on the latest technology as well as gaining an understanding of all the factors that affect their client’s business.
The key skills required.
Modern salespeople need to possess a very particular set of skills. First, they need to be able to recognize buyer behavior. The first step towards this is knowing the value of a strategic relationship. Then you need to be able to create a competitive offering, adding additional extras to any sales deal.
Good selling is all about creating partnerships. You are not looking for the one-off sales deal but building working dynamics that are mutually beneficial. This comes from the ability to understand business priorities. You need to be able to spot a customer’s anxiety and offer solutions to these problems in a clean and effective way.
You also need to be able to manage situations and make decisions under pressure at the right time. Communication is key, and taking control of the message is essential in the salesperson’s tool kit. Your core sales message should set out to define a problem and then set out to explain how your goods and services can make this problem better.
Of course, as we mentioned, sales are always evolving. So as a salesperson, you should always be keeping one eye on the future. Staying ahead of the game is the key to success. It all comes from good training. Yes, there are intuitive salespeople. But more often than that the skills of good selling are learned rather than natural talents.
If your sales team needs to evolve to match the modern consumer’s complex needs, then training is the best way to do it. If you would like to know more about our training programs here at the Sales Academy, then email mike@thesalesacademy.com for more information.
