Emerging Trends in Professional Selling

Emerging trends in professional selling

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What is selling?

Selling is offering to exchange an item of value for a different item. The original item of value being offered may be either tangible or intangible. The second item, usually money, is most often seen by the seller as being of equal or greater value than that being offered for sale.

Selling is considered by many to be a sort of persuading "art". Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesman relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. Sales departments often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing individuals who specialize in sale specific roles.

The following three tenets are required for professional selling:

• The focus of the sales profession centers on the human agents involved in the exchange between buyer and seller
• Effective selling requires a systems approach, at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities
• A specific set of sales skills and knowledge are required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and sellers

Within these three tenets the following definition of profession selling is offered by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD):

Professional Selling is: 
 "The holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods and/or services for equitable value."

What is Professional Selling Process?

Positioning Yourself for Success: 
Helps salespeople recognize their role in positioning their products/organization.

Greeting Prospects and Assessing Shopping Styles:
Teaches the skills of effective customer greetings, the mistakes that are frequently made, how to adapt the way we sell to the way each customer prefers to buy.

How to Sell Different People Differently:
Descriptions and strategies for the different styles of interaction customers shop with, based on their levels of assertiveness and responsiveness.

Understanding Your Customers Real Needs:
How to give your customers not just what they ask for, but what they really need, and how to uncover those true needs.

Asking Questions and Active Listening:
The types of questions the salespeople use to identify their customers’ needs and how to become a great listener.

Attitude and Motivation Make the Difference:
A stimulating attitude towards your customers. This boost in spirit will critically impact the success of the sales.

Managing Your Time and Your Life:
Helps develop a high-performance career strategy based on time-management skills and personal affirmations.

Goal Setting for the Sales Professional:
Teaches cutting-edge skills for setting and achieving personal and career goals, and gaining life balance.

Become a Value-Added Sales Professional:
develop Key skills for building greater value and differentiation to the sale so as to help your customers feel comfortable with their purchase decisions.

Handling Sales Objections:
Recast objections as customer concerns, with a proven process to help them clear these hurdles more effectively.

Closing the Sale:
It is the process of making a sale in which the salesperson gain commitments from the customers.

Maximizing Customer Satisfaction:
Generate high levels of satisfaction by enhancing salespersons’ ability to manage and exceed expectations.

The Service Side of Selling:
Focus on advancing customer relationships through exceptional service experiences, helping you attract and keep more customers.

The Skill of Follow-Up:
Teaches the skills to turn a purchase into the beginning of the relationship, rather than the end.

Advanced Selling Skills:
Provides with tools to sell more through persuasive communications, matching your products to the benefits your customers seek.

The world’s challenges are changing the manner of selling. New issues await today’s professional. These trends require flexibility, tenacity, and the opportunity to educate ourselves in a variety of disciplines. Some of the challenges facing professional selling are:

Global Clients – Selling professionals are experiencing a cultural shift in their respective account bases. It has become vital for all selling professionals to think globally and act locally.

The current economy is morphing faster than in the days of both immigration and the Industrial Revolution. We now do business with communities and nations that we had never heard of ten years ago. Selling representatives must be cautious about words, dress, linguistics, and even electronic communication. Anything said or written can be misinterpreted.

Therefore, it has become pertinent, now, that selling professionals must study international cultures and languages. The acquired knowledge will assist professionals to communicate articulately with global clients, thus resulting in better relationships. Gaining a better understanding of business etiquette, linguistics, mannerisms, and culture will enable selling professionals to diminish barriers and gain better insight into client issues. Moreover, the ability to engage cross-culturally enables selling professionals to competition-proof their capabilities.

Knowledge Management – In today’s selling world content is king. 

Selling professionals require a wealth of knowledge to remain competitive. Tomorrow’s selling professional requires better insight into the customer’s world. Professionals must study competitors, the industry, and the client to help determine future needs. Using knowledge to help the customer remain competitive and offer provocative insights provides value and partnership. Customers engage with those they trust.

DRM – Direct Relationship Management –Selling is a relationship business. Individuals want to conduct business with those they trust. Picking up the phone is more meaningful than sending an email and the more direct contact the better. In an increasingly competitive market, having direct contact will actually deflect competitive forces.

Strategic Methods –Selling professionals by nature are tactical. Yet, tactics are not the best use of time and resources. The new era requires that selling professionals become more strategic in their account management and account planning. Sellers require comprehension of competitive forces, industry demographics, and changing political and economic areas as well as technological changes. Rather than simply selling vertical products and services, future account management requires applying the value proposition to the enterprise.

Driving Force – A prevalent component of any business is strategy. Many organizations do not implement strategy correctly; leaders either look too far into the future or they fail to into organizational culture. However, important as strategy is, it cannot exist without driving force. Ultimately, this boils down to selecting products (or services) to offer and the markets in which to offer them.