As a guest of Kendley Davenport’s Roundtable, we discussed the 5 Mandatory Sales Skills to Succeed in 2023. Here’s a link if you like – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPPpeZ4C9vU
Let’s put this in perspective. It’s harder today to get to the Decision Maker than ever before. We all know that! So, it’s required that more effort is put forth in prospecting/hunting. Then once you contact someone you must help them conclude it’s best to bring the decision maker to the conversation sooner rather than later. Then of course it’s imperative strong Relationship Building is the next step. You have to be more memorable, more impactful, more sensitive, and better than the competition’s sales team…even if the competition is the incumbent. Then asking more and better questions that cause your prospect to recognize your expertise. Value is not one step in the sales process. Value is perceived by your prospect throughout the entire sales process. The prospect is always asking themselves: “Is this time I’m spending with this salesperson valuable? Is this product/service going to help my business cause? Is this just another waste of time?”
During economic headwinds these five skills are more important than any others. Check out the chart below. Based on Sales Science from 35 years of research, 2.2+ Million Sales evaluations in over 200 different industries, Objective Management Group (OMG) has the largest sales data bank measuring the 21 Core Competencies of Sales and 21 Core Competencies of Sales Management. Additionally, my 35 years of experience in Sales Development and being a Partner of OMG since 1995, we identified the 5 Mandatory Sales Skills for 2023. Each Competency is made up of 8-12 attributes that combine to complete the skill. The percentages listed in the chart below are the percentages of the attributes me measure for these 5 Skills. We compare the findings for Top 10% performers, average performers, and the bottom 10% of performers.
Top 5 Competency Skills Bottom 10% of Salespeople Average Top 10% Performers
Hunting 30% 59% 89%
Reaches DM 30% 42% 81%
Relationship 36% 45% 59%
Consultative Selling 17% 40% 62%
Selling Value 23% 55% 62%
The numbers speak for themselves. If you want a team of Top Performers we can help. Just click here