What are the top 3 skills sales people should develop today to be competitive with the new buying?

In the Harvard Business Review (Dec, 2010), a study based on a survey of live sales people and their meetings found that of eight common types of sales people only three were effective. A couple of the key findings of interest:

1) Being an extrovert or outgoing does not necessarily give you a competitive advantage...in the wrong context this can be seen as "car salesman" just as much as it can be an advantage.

2) Product Knowledge - this is a "killer app" of selling. Those that have the greatest depth of knowledge around their product consistently are the strongest sales people.

3) The skill that set apart the most effective sales people from the rest was their ability to handle customer objections, "i.e. - it doesn't have this feature, the price is too high, etc". The best sales people were able to think on their feet and work through the customer objections with their clients.

Below is the link to the article.

http://hbr.org/hb/article_assets/hbr/1012/F1012Z_A_lg.gif

I respectfully disagree with John Cousineau's comments, primarily because I don't think he goes far enough. Here's my ranking:

1. Significantly improved general business acumen. Sales people, especially B2B, really must have a solid, comprehensive grasp of the business implications of the client's challenge (i.e. the reason the buyer is willing to consider buying in the first place). Sales people must always be aware that they compete not just against the other players in their sector; they also compete against the buyer's right NOT to invest in anything. A better understanding of the business implications of the purchase would really help in this area; it would also make sales people come across as better prepared.
2. Questioning skills. I'm a contrarian in regarding to the old listen/ask theme. In my book, sales people should be trained carefully to ask the right questions, probing questions that elicit the 'diagnostic' information the sales person needs to hear, in order to decide how much time to invest in the prospect, and what kind of solution should be on offer.
3. Critical Thinking. Sales people need to evaluate what they're hearing, assess the strategic importance of the account overall, have insights into business implications of the buyer's issues, and at the same time figure out if they can offer a solution that scratches the itch, at a price the buyer is willing to pay.

Well, I never said it was going to be easy, did ?

1/ listening
2/ asking
3/ thinking

In that order. - John

What John says sums it up pretty well, but I'd like to add a few points:

1. Listening - You should spend about 80 percent of the time listening to customers and 20 percent of the time talking. After all, the customers favorite topic is themselves, so let them share as much as they would like. Plus, the more they talk the easier it will be to pinpoint what products or services they will need.

2. Asking - Teach your employees to ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation going. If they start asking "yes" or "no" questions, it gives your customers the opportunity to cut off the discussion.

3. Troubleshooting - At some point, employees will have to deal with a customer who is unhappy with the product or service they purchased. Knowing how to deal with and diffuse the situation is key to turning these irate customers into happy ones. Train your staff on how to ask the right questions to figure out what problems they are having and what can be done to help.

1) Get to know your customer and find common ground- know what they like to eat, if their kids play baseball, etc...Common ground makes it harder for them to turn you away. Separate yourself from the "virtual world" by creating a human connection.
2) questioning for a payoff: Have the customer clearly state how benefits of your offering effects them to verbalize the payoff.
3) Have multiple ways to ask for the order.

Michael Fahey
Director of Sales
Headland Communications
www.hcvoip.com

Creativity
Analysis
Determination

Creativity-because sales solves problems and the best solutions are the most creative

Analysis - because sales has to identify and understand the problems, if you can't analyze and assess what is going on, you're hosed.

Determination - sales isn't easy, it takes time, hard work and effort. You'll want to quit a 1000 times. If you don't have determination, you will.

What I think: http://asalesguy.com/2010/12/02/3-most-important-traits-in-a-sales-person/

1 Passion
2 Passion
3 Passion

Anyone who has a passion towards selling will have all the qualities in them to get in business. We just have to identify such folks

In addition to the other excellent answers; evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

1. Evaluation of an organization's wants and needs. Where are they trying to go, how are they trying to get there, and how do you and your offering fit into that picture?

2. Evaluation of the buying team. What kind of organism are they, how do they function together, and how cohesive are they?

3. Evaluation of the opportunity. How likely are they to do business with you, what is the value of the opportunity, how much time and effort is needed by you, and is this opportunity worthy of you labor?

John is right in that listening, asking and thinking are the skills you need to hone. Brian is correct also in that buyers are smarter today because they have access to more information. Without a genuine curiosity when communicating your essentially throwing mud on the wall hoping something will stick.
The sales person, who can best solve the buyer’s challenges, desires wants and needs will win. These challenges are different depending upon who you are selling to and many deals are sold at different levels. A good sales person must:
First understand these needs well at all levels; C-level, mid management-level, deployment level and the effectively articulate why they are best served to help at each level.
My best sales people are excellent at finding opportunities to add value to their customers.

Listening, asking and thinking, as John mentioned, are excellent skills sales people definitely need. But what does that mean in today's new buying world?
I tried to break that down a little bit:

Tune into the buyer, speak the buyer's language, develop a deep understanding of the buyers needs and challenges to be solved in a given time frame, identify the buyers internal network and dependencies (who is measured on what and when?), understand where the buyer currently is along the buying cycle and problem solving process and how the buyer currently thinks to solve the problem.
At the end of this process we should have a view of the buyer's internal agreement network which is relevant for this specific challenge and we should be able to derive how to engage with the customer in that specific selling situation.

Translate this knowledge to the own organization and their capabilities, map it to the own product and service portfolio, identify differentiators, define the relevant capabilities to be used to solve the customers problem and develop a perfectly designed solution approach on a business level.
Translation also means to translate from business to technology and backwards to a business view (buyers don't buy products, they buy business value). Additionally translation includes to manage the internal agreement network as well as the external agreement network within the buyer's organization.

Match all together to a valuable sales presentation and sales conversation, which addresses, based on the buyer insights, the own unique approach designed for the buyer's specific situation in the buyer's language, in a way, that is relevant and in context for the buyer and fits into the current stage of the buying cycle.
Matching also includes delivering on a buyer's business outcome (to solve the buyer's problem to a defined end state) and to align that with the vendor's internal priorities, as e.g. profitable growth.

In reading many of the valuable insights of others, here are my 3 respective to being the buying partner in the decision making process:

1. Develop emotional intelligence beyond the 68th percentile
2. Understand what motivates you to sell along with your talents (have this quantifiable as initial benchmarks)
3. CLEAR Active listening meaning listen for: Clarity, Legitimize the real wants and needs; Emotions; Agreement; and Retention

P.S. I am not convinced it is truly new buying, but rather a switch from selling perspective to a buying one. The buying process is for the most part the same as it was hundred of years ago.

1. Know how to uncover your prospect's compelling event: Ask your prospect why they need to make a change - what happens if they don't?

2. Remove ALL marketing/sales jargon: Talk to your prospect like a human being. Everyone "efficiently increases ROI to help reach strategic objectives." You are not reaching the modern buyer if you are using these words.

3. Understand how to get to the decision maker fast: Get them involved at the earliest stage as possible and speak their language! Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions, meaning, address your biggest fears as to why they may not move foward with you ASAP.

Sales people need to be communicative, client-oriented and provide 24-hour-availability for the client.
Whether you are a Sales Person or not, ask your connections to write your Top 3 Skills at Top3Skills.com and find out if you are doing a great job!

This is a good question - no matter the answer, the real question is how does a hiring manager ensure the candidates they are hiring actually have these key attributes or skills? The interview never allows the manager to really grasp the sales candidates ability to execute in these skills. They only find out while on the job - just too late!!!

Craig Bissett - CEO www.hiringsimulation.com

Listen... how does the customer define their problem? What capabilities, expertise or resources are lacking? What is the impact of the situation and what will the desired outcome achieve?

Establish parameters for a course of action. Gain executive sponsorship, Execute deliverable

Communicate, Resourceful, Responsive and Committed to Results.

Understand customers real need
Understand customer concern
Understand customer expectation