Recent research findings about consultative selling skills have me stumped. Dave Kurlan, founder of Objective Management Group, (a different OMG acronym you may not have heard of) reports that the average consultative seller competency has not improved much over the last four years.

Just 48% of the consultative seller skill set was identified with 350,000 salespeople assessed.  That’s only a 1% improvement over 5 years. Ouch!

I find that alarming, hard to believe, and downright depressing. Do you? Yet the research is clear with data gathered from thousands of salespeople assessed each year (over 1 million salespeople in 20 years) using OMG candidate assessments.

How can this be? The information and message to salespeople around the world is clear: buyers don’t want to be pitched or sold to. They want professional salespeople who:

  • Understand their problems, opportunities, wants, and needs
  • Don’t waste their time with irrelevant data and details
  • Make the experience productive for both parties
  • Provide information when and how they need it

What does this mean, leaders? It means your sales teams have an opportunity! If your competition is selling the same old way with product pitches, ill-timed proposals, and lots of blah blah blah, your team can win!

winning sales

While top sales people need to consult and collaborate with the buyer, that’s not enough to influence the buyer to pick you.

How do you ensure your sales team wins? It starts at the top with:

This is a blueprint for building a highly effective sales organization that will catapult your team over the competition, reduce price discounting, and build repeatable and referable business.

By the way, Sales Pro Insider can help you with all of these items. Learn more about how we measure the effectiveness of your systems, strategies, and people by starting with a Sales Force Grader here:

Sales Force Grader with border

Our efficient and cost-effective process provides you with the data you need to make the most of your time, energy, and resources to grow your company.

4 Success Drivers You Need to Know...and Grow

TRAINING REPLAY

How do you strengthen this "Will" among your sales associates? How does the lack of drive impact your daily life? I discussed this and so much more on a recent virtual training event you can access below. It's valuable information for any business leader who needs to maximize performance of their people to grow their company.

Click here to access the replay.