| A Managing Director of a prominent City investment | | | | for your own development. |
| bank in London e-mailed me the other day: "I am doing | | | | 2) Join UPSA and start learning from each other. |
| a morning of graduate interviews for salespeople; all | | | | 3) Get certified. |
| high quality guys but one guy mentioned that he liked | | | | 4) Always be learning: read books, listen to CD's, take |
| Google as a stock so I quizzed him based on the DMH | | | | workshops, read Selling Power. |
| blog view and he left the meeting saying he thought | | | | 5) Get a coach. |
| the stock was a sell!"He later revealed to me the | | | | 6) Do the fundamentals consistently and you will be in |
| competitiveness of the interview process and how little | | | | the top 10%. |
| margin for error there was: out of the sixteen | | | | 7) Take action, there is a difference between |
| short-listed candidates, they were only allowed to pick | | | | knowing and doing."The problem today is that as |
| two. When I asked him what the criteria was, he told | | | | "sales" has become such a standardized industry |
| me; "It's really the depth of the candidates that makes | | | | segment of its own it has developed some dubious |
| all the difference. We had one Lebanese guy, for | | | | methodologies and training programmes rather than |
| example, with loads of international experience who | | | | addressing the fundamental aspect to the process: the |
| had been educated in Paris and London and who had | | | | spectrum of the salesperson's knowledge bank and |
| some practical knowledge of the industry and it was | | | | their willingness to enlighten others with the |
| very impressive. Talking to him was like talking to any | | | | knowledge-sharing process.Miller's advice is all too |
| of the guys who are working on the floor here. It all | | | | commonly seen in any type of sales training: young |
| comes down to being well-rounded."Education & | | | | salespeople today assume that what they need is |
| ExperienceIn July, consultant and guru Andy Miller | | | | training in how to sell rather than being well-read and |
| wrote an abstract on his blog which declared: "I don't | | | | convincing debaters who can hold an argument in a |
| mean any disrespect but the odds are if you are | | | | broad range of spheres. Contrary to Miller's popular |
| under the age of 43-45 you never got the type of | | | | opinion, the reason sales training was slashed due to |
| professional development you needed to be a top | | | | "downsizing" in the 1980's at most Fortune 500 |
| producer", citing that last year his organization | | | | companies is for the same reason anything is slashed |
| conducted a survey of 2663 sales organizations | | | | in a corporation: because companies realized what little |
| where 82% of salespeople said they had no sales | | | | value the process contributed to the bottom line.The |
| process or weren't following one, and 42% were | | | | most important kind of training a salesperson can have |
| missing essential skills needed to do their job.Miller | | | | is outside the arena of practice: it's in reading anything |
| ultimately concluded, "WOW! Imagine a professional | | | | but books on 'How to Sell'. Young salespeople would |
| football team with no play book or the essential skills to | | | | be better off reading Wuthering Heights than they |
| move the ball. So what can you do?1) Take ownership | | | | would listening to "Selling Power" CD's. |