It was not much more than a century ago that goods and purchases were either what people could make or what they might obtain through a traveling salesperson or the local dry goods store.

Catalog services, led by Sears and Roebuck, opened a new world of access and choices and in the process revolutionized the business world.

Today a similar breakthrough, on an utterly different order of magnitude, barrels along at an escalating rate. Stores, businesses and sales teams are reeling as the old systems are transformed and familiar channels melt away beneath the Internet’s flood of choice and access.

Christmas ornaments? Make a virtual hop to Germany and pick up a genuine “smoker”, browse eBay and pick up antique bulbs from a housewife in Ohio or surf the local stores and compare selections before an actual visit.

Need a networking solution? Before a customer calls a company chances are that they have already journeyed deep into the company’s web site as well as those of multiple competitors. They will have educated themselves through umpteen industry blogs, posting and chatting in search of solutions. They have gathered pricing information and done comparison shopping on your product, maybe even a look at user sites to evaluate your company. And often all of this is done before a sales call is placed.

While certainly not every customer arrives in such a state of informed preparedness the reality is that they can do so and in increasing numbers they will do so. Even more threatening is that the salesperson’s traditional role as the key access point to products is rapidly disappearing.

This is definitely not a place for amateurs, complacent salespeople or order takers.

Does this mean the death of salespeople? Should one lie down and wait for retirement? No, it does not.

One should rediscover and re-invent oneself – but how?

True Knowledge, Real Ability and Professionalism

While much has been promoted in the past about “mental” cures for salespeople that push everything from motivational camps to neural-linguistic-programming to the psychological tricks of the super closers all such systems or gimmicks struggle and fail when the fundamentals are missing.

A key fundamental is knowledge. The next is communication, its skillful use and smart application.

Oddly, these two elements are also what the Internet primarily offers. It makes sense then to master these both so as to win in the sales environment.

How does this come about? Through effective training and a streamlined sales process.

A good starting point?

One such point is to breakdown the sales knowledge into its most basic form - the key words involved in the product and industry. Take a field such as Real Estate sales, it is astounding how many Realtors would stumble or hem and haw when asked to define the legal terms embedded in their sales contracts or even in the words that make up the homes that they sell.

How can one sell something when one has uncertainties on what one is selling? How can anyone effectively manage a team that does not know their products utterly and to the fullest extent?

Building a team that knows their products cold, that understands their company’s structure and mission and that really knows their customer’s world will build a team that produces, closes and is a joy to manage.

Stop struggling with superficial solutions and motivational talks - first get your team to really, truly, completely and utterly know their jobs.

Written by

Thomas Soracco

Real Ability Software and Management Systems

www.realability.com