Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022 - 52

These reports helpfully consolidate
trends within and across industries
from leaders' perspectives and through
extensive
research.
For example,
in
Protiviti's " 2022 and 2031 Executive
Perspectives on Top Risks " report, key
issues in board rooms around the world
include succession challenges and top
talent retention as a top-three risk in the
short-term (2022) and long-term (2031).
Labor costs, rapid speed of disruptive
innovation, cyber threats and hybrid
work environments are also listed as
top-10 risks in the short and long term.
It is not enough for a salesperson to
only follow general world news to be
an informed professional. Knowing the
bigger context of a customer's business
and how it fits into the big picture - their
industry, marketplace and global impacts
- will create better insights to connect
the dots between the salesperson's
solution and the customer's needs.
they learn to keep a conversation going
with the customer between milestones
in the sales process, congratulating
customers on third-quarter results and
asking their contacts' perspectives on
industry news.
Educating salespeople this way will also
help them speak the customer's language,
as every industry has its own terms, key
metrics, unique challenges, competitive
scene and emerging opportunities.
Research and relationship building take
time. But so do most B2B sales cycles.
Salespeople can utilize the information
Is the extra work worth it? Compare this
to a buying situation for yourself. Would
you rather work with a realtor who is
intimately knowledgeable about their
market and its nuances, or one who
relies on search results alone to find you
a new house? Trust takes time - and it
takes work ethic.
" The consultative sales approach
may seem simple, but it isn't easy to
execute well ... Consultative selling is a
fundamental business strategy centered
on creating value through insight and
perspective that paves the way toward
long-term relationships and genuine
solutions
for
your
customers, "
Edinger writes.
The research and self-education
Scott
in
which a salesperson invests creates
a foundation for a better business
conversation. It may take practice
to weave thoughtful questions and
insights that add value to a customer
conversation, but it cannot happen at all
without a baseline of business acumen.
Sara Wolski is director of design at
Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE), a
premier provider of leadership offerings
for global organizations. Duke CE
works with clients to understand their
context and to craft the right offering
for any level of leadership, from midlevel
managers to C-suite executives.
Email Sara.
A few things that can bridge the gap between a salesperson starting out as a vendor and
later being perceived as a partner are knowing the audience, the customers' businesses, and the larger
context of the marketplace. Business acumen is the foundation for doing these things well.
When training and developing salespeople, use programming that includes education about business acumen,
customer research and market research. It is also important for the training practitioners to understand why
these elements are important for salespeople to build credibility - and training experts need to learn how to
use these tools themselves.
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https://www.protiviti.com/US-en/insights/protiviti-top-risks-survey https://www.protiviti.com/US-en/insights/protiviti-top-risks-survey https://hbr.org/2017/03/sales-reps-stop-asking-leading-questions

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022

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