The sales industry has always been heavily characterised by soft skills: human-to-human relationship building, a strong competency for communication — where it’s just not mere dialogue but understanding customer’s needs and cues and winning their trust. Oftentimes, how good you are in these skills determines how you win them over to trust you with their future growth and help to solve their business woes.
But what if, as a salesperson, you aren’t the only one trying to close a deal with a prospect? What if you had to compete with other experienced sales reps, from around the world? Globalisation has brought about the digitization of the workplace – physical borders cease to exist online, and what was once a local workforce has to now compete against a global talent pool.
Singapore differentiates itself against global competition through high working standards, and in response to globalisation, government-led initiatives aim to upgrade the workforce with current and future skills development. That said, the time for working hard is long past. It is time to work smart. Companies should prioritise sales professionals’ training, where they are the most critical mass who are an extension of the business and the company’s revenue creators.
When most people hear the word “sales,” they imagine an aggressive and sleazy salesperson and a job that revolves around hitting sales figures, cold calls, and long hours. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In contrast to that outdated stereotype, being in sales means having a professional career in relationship building, earning trust, and coming across as a service-oriented individual.
How do we enable salespeople to excel in their field, and have a satisfying, professional career?
Salespeople are a representative of a company, the first point of contact that will make or break the perception one has of a business. As such, companies need to be on the same page as their salespeople, as they are the liaison between the client and the company.
Often, company executives aggressively chase fiscal year targets, to look good in the face of their competitors and shareholders. While the chasing of financial goals is admirable, when not done correctly, it can cause an undesirable ‘trickle down’ effect that affects their sales staff, and the company.
One such instance is that executives might not be aligned with the sentiment ‘on the ground’ and would subsequently direct the zealous chasing of ambitious sales targets. The targets are then spread across sales representatives, who might already be stretched thin, and on the verge of employee burnout.
Whilst a company might achieve its short-term financial goals, it might lead to a mass quitting of employees as they search for greener pastures elsewhere. The company is then left with the newcomers, as the experienced sales staff might opt to work for competitors in the same field.
These issues arise because of the disconnect from the market, customer and sales staffs, inefficient processes, inconsistent and unaligned communication within the company, and the lack of tech and tools to ease the workload of the employees to mention a few. While not immediately apparent, the ecosystem of sales does affect sales performance and numbers.
Is it possible to train individuals to be holistic salespeople?
Thankfully there is a way to train individuals to be holistic salespeople, optimising their sales training and improving the overall quality of sales employees, while taking into account the issues that plague the sales industry. Taking this into account, APACSMA designed their syllabus to include a poll of internationally renowned industry experts as coaches, that focus on a holistic sales education, and certification – the first in the world.
The training that sales professionals undergo differs from others as they are not only trained in one specific area but a multitude of skills, especially those with a customer-centric focus — making them job-ready.
Being professionally trained, while not always being able to avoid difficult clients, sales professionals now have the knowledge to overcome difficult situations. As well as foster an environment, through trust, educating the clients on the sales industry.
In five years’, time, companies might transition away from interacting with salespeople. We might see a rise in advanced intelligence systems, as they automate the decision-making process to help them choose a supplier or a solutions provider.
That said, while technological integration will be even more prominent in the future of sales, people will still value human contact on complex requirements and sales situations, local facilitations, and enterprise-wide engagement needs, rather than relying fully on technology.
There will, and always will be, a need for the development of sales skills to meet industry needs, and to educate the industry at large on the importance of ethical sales, leadership sales training, continuous development, industry engagement, and industry-endorsed certifications.
This article is written by Zeenath Kuraisha, CEO and Founder of APACSMA
