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Newsletter
A Professional Sales Force By Dave Kahle It’s one of the most common laments I hear from CSO’s: “I wish I had a more professional sales force.” No doubt that thought has passed through your mind at some time in the recent past. You’re not alone, of course. What does it mean to be a “professional salesperson?” Four Basic Characteristics of a Professional Sales Force 1. A professional salesperson strives continually to do a good job This sounds so simple, but it is often the first complaint I hear. The world is full of salespeople who have plateaued at a certain average level of performance and are content to remain there. Too many sales people are satisfied with just doing the job — with mediocre performance. Why? Because they don’t see it as a profession, they see their work as a job, a necessary inconvenience that fills the work week and provides a paycheck. The professional salesperson sees the job as a challenge to continually strive for greater performance and more personal growth. He/she understands that professionalism demands a commitment to excellent performance, and strives to deliver. 2. A professional salesperson is a good employee I wish I had a dollar for every salesperson I’ve run across who thinks of himself as an independent business person with no compulsion to follow the company’s directions. They consider themselves outside of the world defined by the policies, strategies, goals and procedures of their employer. Believing that their relationships with their customers are unshakeable and personal, they provide lip service to their manager’s directions and go about their jobs as they see fit. They mistakenly equate experience with competence. Tacky. Misguided. Unprofessional. 3. A professional salesperson is committed to personal growth Every profession in the world expects a minimum degree of competence to enter the profession. That’s why lawyers must pass the bar exam, ministers and social workers must graduate from college, teachers must pass their student teaching experience, and EMT technicians must pass their exam to be certified. Not only does every profession have minimum requirements, so too every profession then demands the continual improvement of those practitioners who are dedicated to that profession. That is why lawyers have conferences, nurses and teachers have in-services, doctors take advanced training, etc. High standards and continuous improvement are the characteristics of every profession. While we may be a generation away from universally requiring minimum standards in our entry-level salespeople, we can certainly expect those who make their living by this means to regularly invest in their own improvement. From my experience, I’m convinced that only five percent of the salespeople in the world have spent $20 or more of their own money on their own improvement in the past 12 months. That’s an indication of the degree to which they are committed to personal and professional growth. The professionals do. The non-professionals don’t. 4. Professional salespeople are individuals of substantial character You just don’t expect foul language, coarse behavior, substance abuse, financial shortcuts and unethical behavior from a professional of any kind. That’s because there is a universal perception of a professional as a person of substantial, reliable character of a high order. They are more disciplined, more ethical and more refined than the mass of humanity. Or at least they should be.
