Salesopedia - 5 Critical Skills for Sales Success

5 Critical Skills for Sales Success

Written by Jeff Thull

I’m frequently asked, “What are the most important skills a sales professional must have to succeed in today’s competitive market?” The first step is to recognize that a sales professional is a professional, just as physicians, attorneys and commercial pilots are professionals.

There are three critical components that form a solid foundation for professional skills development and result in exceptional performance for all professionals. They are systems, skills and disciplines.

The System is a set process or organized procedure that leads to a predictable result. Skills consist of the individual’s knowledge and their ability to execute the system, and Discipline, probably the most critical component, is about the mind-set of a professional…how they think. In short, these three areas represent knowing what to do, how to do it, and having the emotional strength to actually carry it out at a quality level.

That being said, the five most important skills required to achieve exceptional results today involve the ability to:

     1) Research and prepare: Before you engage with a new customer or a new opportunity “you must be prepared to not be prepared.” You should be so prepared that you are able to be relaxed, open minded, and ready for any path this conversation may take you and your customer. Even highly experienced sales professionals don’t just “wing it.” They make sure they understand their customer’s industry, their customer’s business and the job responsibilities of the individuals they will be working with before they walk into someone’s office. They also recognize the characteristics of a high-quality opportunity and understand they need to be ready to guide their customer through a quality business decision.

     2) Diagnose: The amateur salesperson “prepares to present,” but the successful professional prepares to “diagnose.” Quality diagnosis is the ability to guide the customer through a conversation in a manner that brings awareness, clarity and ownership to the problem they are experiencing or the opportunity they are missing.

    Within the customer’s organization each individual impacted by the solution is responsible for a different function and each will have a different perspective on the problem. The true professional is able to create and follow a diagnostic map and acquire the raw information needed to make an accurate diagnosis and design an efficient solution. They will understand how the absence of their solution might be affecting their customer in both business performance and individual job performance.

     3) Dollarize: The key skill required to accomplish this is having the ability to help the customer quantify the financial impact of the situation. They will likely need assistance in understanding how much it is costing them not to have what you are about to propose.

     4) Collaborate: This collaborative process, to “co-design” the solution to be proposed, began with a thorough diagnosis, is expanded with input from the salesperson’s extensive knowledge about the industry and having addressed related issues more often than the customer. The professional salesperson knows that in order for the solution to be accepted, their customer must thoroughly understand the problem to be solved, take ownership, and champion the change for successful implementation.

     5) “You’ve got to get your mind right.” You can make the greatest leaps in sales performance and raise your results from average to good or good to spectacular by simply changing your mind. How we think precedes how we behave, and our mind-set is without a doubt the critical foundation for success. What top professionals have taught us is that the foundation of their mind-set is first and foremost an intense focus on bringing value to their clients. In other words, they believe and behave as if their success is an automatic by-product of their clients’ success.

At the heart of the thinking of the most successful sales professionals, is their success will come from taking care of their customers. They approach their customers thinking, “How can I help them succeed?” rather than “What can I sell them?” They think like a business person, rather than a salesperson.

Jeff Thull
		About the author:
		Jeff Thull is a leading-edge strategist and valued advisor for executive teams of major companies worldwide. As President and CEO of Prime Resource Group, he has designed and implemented business transformation and professional development programs for companies like Shell Global Solutions, Siemens, 3M, Microsoft, Intel, Citicorp, IBM and Georgia-Pacific, as well as many fast track, start-up companies. For more information contact: Prime Resource Group, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , www.primeresource.com ,
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