Closing a deal does not necessarily mean an ultimate success to a sales person. This is the old tradition. Today’s successful businesses are built over sustainable relationships with customers; relationships that provide answers to questions; solutions to problems; and innovative products to ideas.
Today’s sales professionals need to listen more than talk. They need to solicit the true stakeholder need; elicit their requirements and subsequently make an offering that satisfies that need. This could be a new product; service or just an enhancement to an existing process. In some cases; this wouldn’t be delivered necessarily with the same COTS “commercially of the shelf” product the sales person is trying to sell. Hence; this requires a shift in the way the current sales process works.
This is why at the Canadian College for Leadership & Management ‘CCLM’ this dramatic shift is realized early on; therefore; the centre introduced the Certified Sales professional ‘CSLP’ certification that focuses that sales professionals acquire and develop these key competencies. Among these competencies are active listening; requirements elicitation; negotiation and presentation skills.
If you are a sales person; it’s your chance to develop your sales skills and competencies by becoming Certified Sales Professional “CSLP”.