Sales Effectiveness as a Source of Competitive Advantage
Current and future competitiveness requires the creation of a source of sustainable competitive differentiation. Today, traditional sources of differentiation (brand, technology, economies of scale) are unsustainable. We believe that in the long run, sales effectiveness is a critical source of sustainable competitive advantage and differentiation.
Making your sales force a source of competitive advantage requires more than training salespeople on new sales techniques. At Wilson Learning, we recognize the central role of both salespeople and sales leadership to sales effectiveness. Providing salespeople and sales leaders with the right skills, tools, and processes can propel your organization forward, allowing you to out-perform the competition and delivering greater value to your customers.
Historically, salespeople served a single role: vendor, persuader, or counselor. At Wilson Learning, our research has shown that to be a source of competitive advantage, salespeople need to fulfill two roles. They have to be both Consultants to their clients and Strategists to their own organization.
The salesperson as Consultant advances the customer’s company by becoming an expert in that business and industry, in addition to his or her own business. The salesperson as Strategist advances the selling organization by doing profitable business while outperforming the competition.
To serve as Consultants and Strategists, salespeople also need Personal and Technical Effectiveness skills. Personal Effectiveness is the individual capacity for self-development, innovation, and relationship skills. Technical Effectiveness is product-specific knowledge about characteristics and applications, combined with business acumen. While these skills are critical, and at one time were sufficient for effective sales performance, their primary role is to help make the salesperson a more effective business Consultant and Strategist.
Click the titles below to learn more about the two roles.
Salesperson as Consultant
Consultant ModelThe Counselor Salesperson creates an advantage by serving as a business consultant to his or her customers. By knowing customers as a business (risk and success factors, capabilities, and processes), salespeople can establish the value of their solutions in terms of the customer’s profitability, growth, or improved competitiveness. Learn about our Consultative sales offering
Salesperson as Strategist
Strategist ModelThe salesperson as Strategist focuses on providing advantage to his or her own organization, by determining which business is most profitable and executing winning strategies. A sales strategist is not only keenly aware of the competition, but understands his or her competitor’s sales strategies and creates an environment where he or she exploits competitor weaknesses while neutralizing competitor strengths.Learn about our Strategic sales offering