Where Does It Hurt? Salespeople Know What Their Own Skill Gaps Are

We asked 99 salespeople in a mix of businesses to rate themselves on 27 sales actions that create value for the customer in the buying experience.  From our experience, we knew that most salespeople tend to rate themselves fairly optimistically, giving themselves a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale as a kind of virtual pat on the back.  Knowing that, we devised a different scale for the C-Lens Index Self-Diagnostic that created a set of choices focusing on how frequently salespeople felt they performed a specific sales action as well as how well they thought they actually performed it.  So, the scale we used was:

1.       Do this frequently, Do it well.

2.       Do this frequently, Need to improve

3.       Do this infrequently, Do it well

4.       Do this infrequently, Need to improve

5.       Don’t do this at all.

When we looked at the data, it was clear the responses were not skewed to the positive end of the scale.  In fact, there were clear highs and lows across all the responses. 

In our first analysis of the data, we focused solely on responses made to all sales actions for Choice 2, Do this frequently, Need to improve.  There were eight sales actions where Choice 2 was equal to or higher than any other choice.  In other words, a plurality of respondents selected Choice 2 on 25 percent of the total number of sales actions.  That meant many salespeople were doing these specific sales actions frequently that they felt needed improvement.  The following are the sales actions that received the plurality of Choice 2 responses.  The percent represents how many salespeople selected Choice 2 for their response:

1. Ask in-depth probing questions to better understand the customer’s situation (44%)

2. Ask questions that reflect knowledge of how things get done in the customer’s line of business (41%)

3. Find other valuable resources for the customer that also might help address needs (31%)

4. Show the customer alternative approaches that address needs in different ways (33%)

5. Show the customer how the proposed solutions are financially worth the price (29%)

6. Give the customer good solid reasons for seeing me on follow-up calls (30%)

7. Bring along ideas for improving the customer’s business that are unique, insightful, forward-looking and fresh (32%)

8. Stay current and informed on how the customer’s business is doing, its strategy, recent changes and emerging needs (37%)

All other responses to these sales actions were either equal to or lower than the percentage shown. 

What can we make of these findings?

Themes Emerge: Knowledge, Confidence and Effort

To have a significant percentage of salespeople saying they need to improve basic questioning skills (1 and 2 above) is surprising.  We feel respondents might be reacting to the need to understand the customer’s business and how their business works, rather than simple skills like asking open- and close-ended questions.  If that is the case, it reinforces a theme that threads through most of the other responses that are rated “need to improve”, namely, knowing the customer’s business.

The other surprise was number of respondents who felt they needed to improve on developing alternative solutions and cost justifying a buying decision (4 and 5 above).  Again, these are frequently practiced sales actions that are rated “need to improve”, so our interpretation is that these require more than a base of level of product and business knowledge for proficiency. Constructing and generating these ideas also takes a degree of self-confidence along with competence.  In other words, these particular sales actions are harder to pull off than more straightforward skills like describing product features and benefits or even answering objections.

These themes of knowledge of the customer and self-confidence might also play a role in the other sales actions rated Do this frequently and Need to improve.  Reasons for calling, bringing fresh business ideas, finding other useful resources and staying informed about the customer’s status quo and plans (3, 6, 7, 8 above) all reflect a more consultative approach, more effort, and more risk.  Being proactive about ideas is not necessarily safe, even if the salesperson has the ability and/or the experience to back up his/her point of view.  

Proficiency in all these Do frequently, Need to improve sales actions require effort above and beyond baseline face-to-face selling skills.  Perhaps that’s why they are seen as improvement targets.

Total “Need To Improve” Ratings

We then added the results of Choice 4 Do this infrequently, Need to improve to these eight sales actions.  This provides a view of what salespeople feel they need to improve, regardless of how frequently they perform the sales action.  The combined total of Choice 2 Do this frequently, Need to Improve and Choice 4 Do this infrequently, Need to improve shows how big the gap in performance is.

The following represent the combined total of Choice 2 and Choice 4.

1. Ask in-depth probing questions to better understand the customer’s situation (48%)

2. Ask questions that reflect knowledge of how things get done in the customer’s line of business (50%)

3. Find other valuable resources for the customer that also might help address needs (49%)

4. Show the customer alternative approaches that address needs in different ways (47%)

5. Show the customer how the proposed solutions are financially worth the price (46%)

6. Give the customer good solid reasons for seeing me on follow-up calls (38%)

7. Bring along ideas for improving the customer’s business that are unique, insightful, forward-looking and fresh (58%)

8. Stay current and informed on how the customer’s business is doing, its strategy, recent changes and emerging needs (51%)

As the data suggest, about half the salespeople responded to that they need improvement on these sales actions, whether they felt they performed them frequently or infrequently. 

One generous interpretation of “need to improve” is that all professionals should feel they need to improve.  Whether it is a golf swing or a proposal presentation, it is healthy to be open to the idea that skills can always be done better.  However, in this C-Lens Self-Diagnostic, these eight skills were singled out and selected not as “Do this well”, but “Need to improve”.  While 75% of the sales actions in our C-Lens instrument were rated as “Do this frequently, do this well” or “Do this infrequently, do this well,” these were not.  We feel this choice is telling, and sales managers and executives should take notice. 

Moving Ahead: An Agenda For Development

This data provides an agenda for sales force development: Salespeople need skills and knowledge about how to help the customer, they need to develop confidence in practicing them, and support for making the effort.

The whole point of this improvement is to give the customer a valuable buying experience so that when a buying decision is made, it is made with confidence, certainty and a sense of comfort.  That can only happen if the sales process is laden with value, delivered through a competent--and confident--sales team.