The Selling Skills Blueprint To Strengthen Your Sales Team

If you’re a salesperson, you’re usually measured on sales revenue or account additions. When you’re ahead of the game it comes with a pat on the back and maybe a bonus. If you’re behind you get a reminder to work harder and make more calls. Have you ever thought, “Is that all there is, make more calls and work harder?” After all, that‘s what you’ve been doing.

If you’re a business owner leading your team you might be wondering what else you could suggest to them.  If there was only a selling skills blueprint that would help you both know what skills to improve on?  There is, and it’s packaged in a sweet little sales improvement tool called Profiles Sales CheckPoint ^TM

The Profiles Sales CheckPoint ^TM , by Profiles International makes it easy for small businesses to provide a sales person guidance and feedback on seven essential selling competencies and 19 related skills. Both the sales person and the manager make an assessment on the same set of questions, and then the program offers insights through comparisons that can stimulate improvement oriented conversations. One section in the report is a discussion over which competency is most critical in the selling role at your company. This helps an owner set the priorities in the selling approach rather than leaving it up to each sales person to determine. In one business having an entrepreneurial approach could be more important, while at another, managing relationships will carry more weight.  As always when people know where to focus their energy they can be that much better of an employee for you. From the sales persons perspective it feels good to be on the same page as the boss.

When assessing improvement tools I look for ease of use, relevance to most industries and something that provides a structure and guidance to make improvement. Since I work solely with small businesses it needs to be able to fit into most any selling culture. The Profiles Sales CheckPoint ^TM does it.  If you’re an owner/sales manager without a sales background, this tool has you covered. All you need to do is provide feedback, discuss the assessment with your rep and have them make some decisions on what to improve. You’ll be miles ahead of the “work harder” mentality.

Here’s what is measured:

1. Entrepreneurial Approach
   • Reflects entrepreneurial attitude
   • Time optimization
   • Sets effective goals
2. Understands the Prospect
   • Recognizes buyer behavior
   • Understands the purchasing process
3. Develops Appropriate Solutions
   • Uses feature and benefit solutions
   • Knowledge of products
4. Prospects Proactively
   • Identifies prospects
   • Gets appointments
5. Manages Selling Process
   • Understands client-centric selling
   • Establishes rapport
   • Identifies prospect’s needs
   • Counsels prospect
6. Closes the Sale
   • Explores prospect’s options
   • Presents ideal solution
   • Overcomes objections
   • Closes effectively
7. Manages Sales Relationships
   • Secures the relationship
   • Develops the relationship

This tool provides you with three things.

• What to work on to be a great sales person
• Self and management assessment on how a sales rep is doing
• A format to make decisions on what to work on and set a plan of action

In essence it’s a performance review program for sales people packaged at $169 per year. If you’re not doing anything now for your people you should order one for each rep. I’ve been using hiring assessments by Profiles International for over twelve years now. The Profiles Sales CheckPoint ^TM has just made my role as a sales manager that much easier and more importantly, effective.

If you want to learn more or order assessments for your team send me a message and I’ll get you started.