3 Foundational Rules of Professional Sales Competence.

1) “You Must Be Personally Accountable for Our Desired Results”
2) “you Must Understand Our Business”
3) “You Must Be on Our Side”

The foundational rules of professional competence, are the ones that are capable of lifting a salesperson above the vast majority of their colleagues and competitors in their customers’ minds.

The most striking characteristic of the first three rules is that they bear no relation to standard sales skills, such as lead generation, cold calling, overcoming objections, and closing. Rather, they represent the first three sales competencies. The rules and the competencies are derived from and directly connected to the top three factors that actually predict which salespeople will win the initial business and the continuing, exceptional loyalty of their customers and thus, earn world-class sales status. Further, because the rules are customer-defined, they reflect the customer’s goals in purchasing goods and services.

Naturally, business customers expect the people who are selling them this outsourced value to ensure that they get it. The foundational rules and competencies make perfect sense when we see them from this perspective. Customers want to be able to depend on salespeople in the same way that they depend on any other manager in their companies. What do they expect of salespeople who act in the role of surrogate managers? To start, three things:
? First, your customers expect a salesperson who is accountable for managing the pieces of business they are outsourcing, someone who will not give excuses or get defensive, but will take responsibility for delivering the desired results.
? Second, your customers expect a salesperson who understands their businesses well enough that he or she can be trusted to provide sound advice, as well as make independent decisions that are properly aligned to their needs and goals.
? Third, your customers expect a salesperson who knows the politics, systems, processes, and procedures of his or her own company well enough to ensure that the results materialize as promised and planned.

What is in it for you if you provide these “managerial” services? Credibility and a competitive advantage that leads to an oversized share of the customer’s wallet. No matter how effective salespeople are at executing their sales process, they cannot succeed without deserved business credibility. Without credibility, salespeople cannot convert leads into appointments, and potentially valuable new customer relationships are stillborn. Without credibility, customers will not provide the access and openness that salespeople need to properly execute today’s consultative sales processes. Without credibility, customers will not buy the first time, nor in the future, because they will not trust in the salesperson’s ability to deliver on promised solutions.
Credibility is a key ingredient in successful selling. Demonstrating the three foundational competencies provides the basis for your credibility with customers.

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