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If You Want to Improve, Train Your Brain
February 25, 2008
Advanced sales education pays big-time dividends
By Izabella Iizuka
By the time you reach a sales manager position, you've earned your stripes in the business. You could pitch a St. Bernard on a beach vacation in August and close the deal in 30 minutes (tops), so you know how to get the job done.
But you aren't just a salesperson any more, with your own set of goals and targets to achieve. You now have a team to develop, and that job requires a completely different skill set than the one that propelled your ascension into the ranks of management. What's an eager, successful sales professional—but one with limited management experience—to do when facing this next great challenge?
Get help, that's what. Your sales record and job history are proof that you're savvy, motivated and accustomed to winning, so all you need is some guidance to help you redirect those same skills into the challenge of managing a sales team.
"Sales is a growing profession, and the nature of the selling process is changing all the time," says Ralph Oliva, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets at Penn State University's Smeal College of Business. "Even seasoned professionals need to update their skills, understand the changing nature of the people their teams are selling to, the complexity of buying cycles and the needs of an ever-smarter but ever-more-confused buying audience."
Wesley J. Johnston, director of Georgia State University's Center for Business and Industrial Marketing in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, agrees with Oliva. He says success in any sales-related role brings to mind that famous Nike TV slogan: "There is no finish line."
"Selling is like golf: You will never be perfect but you can always get better," Johnston explains. "Even the pros lose their swing at times, and it is good to get coaching when that happens."
"While the sales profession is getting more attention from academia than ever before, it's not as though the sales function has been completely ignored in the classroom," according to Christopher K. Lemley, managing director of the Professional MBA Program and a marketing instructor at Georgia State. "The academic community has been paying attention to the sales area for many years, but there has definitely been an increase in the number of programs aimed at developing and improving the skill sets necessary to become an excellent salesperson or sales executive.
"The companies that are going to survive and prosper are demanding more from their sales forces and asking leading-edge universities to come to the plate with better-equipped graduates who can go into and lead sales forces in a world full of more intelligent buyers," he continues. "Additionally, at the graduate level we are seeing a larger number of working sales professionals coming into our MBA program in order to gain a better understanding of business in general, and the more complete skill sets which they need to enhance their careers."
The need for a more knowledgeable sales team.
The fact of the matter is, all aspects of business are getting more challenging, with skill sets merging as people take on increasingly complex roles. There are a few people still out there working in silos, but their numbers are dwindling. Today's sales professional needs to know a lot more than how to pitch and sell, and if you're managing a team of those people, your path to success and advancement in your company will largely be determined by how well your team performs.
Further complicating the issue is the dilution of what "sales training" actually means. The current training courses run the gamut of both hard and soft skills, encompassing everything from keeping a positive mental attitude to company/product-specific training to relationship building.
No wonder so many companies are asking, "Is there a common set of skills salespeople at all levels should possess, skills that can make a difference in both the effectiveness and efficiency of our sales force?"
While there are answers to that question, the one you get often depends on the motives of the person you're asking.
"Today, C-level executives want sales managers who are as knowledgeable about the general business of the organization as they are about sales," Lemley says. "But those same executives want to see results, so they are asking hard questions about the cost of sales training and its benefit to the organization. At the same time, people on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder—such as individuals in sales and sales management—are interested in moving up in their careers. They are asking, 'What additional skills do I need to advance in an organization, not only in sales but into other executive positions?'"
While purely academic studies are fine for the up-and-comers, learning from industry peers is often the best education a sales manager could get, according to Oliva. "Smart salespeople know they need to grow all the time," he says. "Learning from and collaborating with peers who are already in the practice is a great way to do that. For example, organizations like ISBM are a perfect place to connect with global thought leadership, learn best practices and acquire new knowledge on how to sell in industrial markets."
Better numbers today, better career tomorrow
Among the biggest challenges that all non-revenue-producing efforts face—and advanced sales training is one of them—are time and a return on the investment. In the eyes of some shortsighted upper managers, all things that fail to produce revenue are low on the list of priorities.
But as times change, sales teams need to adjust to them. One such change that has taken the market by storm in recent years is communicating the value of a company's products and solutions. So if your team is still focused on pricing, they could use a refresher on modern techniques.
"There's always an opportunity to be better 'value merchants,'" ISBM's Oliva says. "In today's markets, being able to convincingly communicate value—and to understand the latest tools and techniques and how to sell on value while simultaneously dealing with rising costs and pricing pressures—are among the most critically important skills, as is the need to sell into the supply chain of industrial customers."
Lemley notes better education also creates better employment options down the line, including the ability to move into the C-suite … a task difficult for a worker with sales-only experience, no matter how good the numbers are.
"When sales managers enter a professional selling and professional sales management program like GSU's, they are already good at what they do," he says. "But when they leave the program, they won't just be better sales managers, they will also have learned the skills required to interact with executives in other departments. And they will be able to interface with senior-level executives in different disciplines in their client companies, as well.
"The executive's ability to advance within an organization depends upon strategic thinking skills, which is especially important in an increasingly globalized marketplace," Lemley adds. "By engaging in high-level adult education, people can develop the knowledge base and skill sets necessary to eventually move into the C-level suite," he says, concluding, "Advanced education will better equip them to work with executives inside and outside of their firm to plot a better path for the organization."
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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