Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sales Coaching - 3 Skills to Focus On

A sales professional's success is determined by your willingness to invest in yourself. There are two areas for personal development that most will invest in, and one area only Top Producers invest in. Those who aren't Top Producers never even think to invest in themselves in this way.

That's not to say you shouldn't invest in all three areas because you should. The two areas you're familiar with are self-improvement and sales process training. The area you may not be so familiar with is customer focus.

Self-improvement development is designed to help you to increase your personal productivity, enthusiasm, and energy level. Yes, you need to be focused on doing the things that directly lead to business with enthusiasm for what you have to offer and with an energy level that reflects your commitment. Salespeople who are lacking in these areas tend to be very busy doing lots of "things", but have little production to show for their efforts.

Sales training development is essential. There's no question you need the skills to prospect, present, overcome stalls and objections, and close the sale. Without proficiency in these key sales skills you struggle only landing the occasional easy sale.

Client focus development is the critical difference between the average salesperson and the Top Producer. When you've developed your client focus skills you're able to: clearly understand the clients goals and get the client to openly share those goals with you, you're able to work with the client to develop a plan for the accomplishment of those goals in a mutually engaging on-going conversation, and you're able to develop a relationship with the client based on integrity and accountability leading to repeat business and referrals.