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Develop New Selling Skills to Develop Your Sales Career

Guest articles > Develop New Selling Skills to Develop Your Sales Career

by: Steve Eungblut

From a business perspective, the year 2012 should be a very interesting year. Economic forecasts hint that the quantity of job opportunities and scope for career progression is going to reach an all time low.

Nevertheless an effective array of sales techniques are always going to be extremely valuable to employers and, although times are difficult, you're still going to be able to receive a high level of income so long as you get the job that is right for you!

But what job is "right" and which sales techniques do you need to already have or acquire?

In today's tough selling environment, the highest earning sales jobs have changed. Most sectors are now seeking consultative selling techniques, instead of a proven history of conventional selling skills.

For this reason more traditional sales techniques, like Feature Advantage Benefit (FAB) Selling no longer work in today's marketplace. In addition, most sectors are now prepared to shell out considerably more for consultative selling skills when employing account managers and new business development professionals, when it comes to salaries and sales commissions.

The great news is that, when it comes to consultative selling techniques, the following things are true:

• Consultative selling skills may be mastered much quicker and are far less difficult to apply than the majority of salespeople recognise.
• Once learned, these selling skills may be easily and quickly used in any market sector, hence these sales techniques will widen your chances of career development and career advancement.
• These skills are entirely missing in most individuals you will be challenging with for the best sales jobs.
• You can even use them to convince a prospective boss to employ you and, not only that, they actually work in any given situation. Consequently, your ability to gain employment using these sales techniques will not entirely rely on you being assertive or showing off a spectacular set of past achievements!

Develop Your Own Personal Brand

Establishing an excellent sales career demands that you grow your own personal brand and proactively market yourself as being the answer to the recruiter's distinctive and immediate desires. To make this happen you need to cultivate a system of contacts above your own level or, better still, even higher in firms that are active in the industry.

To grow a personal brand and market yourself at the appropriate tier, regardless of whether it is to sales managers or sales directors, you have got to embrace a consultative selling methodology. You must therefore show an awareness of the challenges and market trends which have an impact on the most important decision makers for the position you are aiming for; in addition to showing a distinct knowledge of their short- and long-term goals.

Once this has been achieved, you must align the benefits and advantages that your accomplishments and sales techniques present to the ‘prospect’ within the framework of their perception for the position. In other words, you need to position yourself as a solution that fulfils the employer's most crucial needs in the targeted firm.

The greater the need and the more convincing your solution is, when it comes to what you offer the employer, the faster you will find that fantastic sales job!

But always remember, your CV is a sales proposal in its own right and thus it must be aligned to specific sales opportunities. You should not simply present a generalised CV to firms or senior managers. Rather your CV ought to inform the employer what it is that you have to offer them and what it is that you have achieved during your career to date (regardless of whether this happens to be the first sales position you are applying for). Ensure that the CV sits within the framework of what they are looking for from the position.

You need to bear in mind that your CV provides you with a chance to market your abilities to an employer and really is a sales proposal in its own right, so your target organisation will be seeking a distinct assertion of the real value you have to offer. Once again, align your pitch (i.e. your CV) to the needs, challenges and pressures that their company is facing.

About the Author: Steve is a highly experienced sales and business leader. His company, Sterling Chase, provide sales training, coaching and consultancy services throughout the United Kingdom and across the globe. Steve has won numerous awards for his sales and leadership achievements and has attended Harvard Business School. Check out Steve’s sales training blog for his latest articles. 

Contributor: Steve Eungblut

Published here on: 22-Jan-12

Classification: Sales

Website: www.sterlingchase.com

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