Sales Training Seminars and Tips

Sales Training and Sales Competency Model

So, what's ailing your sales organization? What keeps you your Sales VP up at night?

Perhaps a salesperson doesn't have the time, ability or sales skills to perform all the work that needs to be done? Maybe the rewards in place are not giving salespeople the proper incentives? What are some causes of the sales skills gap in the sales team? What sales training is needed? What can an organization control or not control when it comes to unleashing what salespeople know and what salespeople do to be successful? Usually, a gap in performance that your organization can control stems from the absence of the right activities, beliefs, or competencies that will lead to the desired level of performance.

These are the building block of a sales competency model and can be addressed through targeted sales skills training. Activities are visible outputs that a salesperson creates. These outputs can take the form of something communicated, something thought, or something created.

Beliefs are internal thought patterns that lead a salesperson to accept something as "true", especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons (i.e. that all salespeople are bad people, etc).

Competencies are comprised of a sales team member's knowledge, ability, and skills:

- Knowledge is acquisition of the right information necessary to perform.

- Abilities are defined as the quality of being able to do something, either physically or mentally (like drive a car).

- Skill is the proficiency, facility, or dexterity acquired or developed through training or experience (like driving a car very well).

As a sales training, learning or development professional, you have a unique ability to understand why a sales skills gap exists. More importantly, you have the tools necessary to define what the sales team member can control within that sales skills gap or what the organization must do to help. Sales trainers and learning and development professionals should objectively and appropriately define specific ways to close the sales skills gap by addressing the root cause (activity, belief, or competency).

To accomplish this, they create sales skills training and learning solutions that help sales team members take advantage of formal and informal sales skills learning activities.

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Article Content: Sales Skills