As a Sales and Marketing Training and Development Consultant, I work everyday to understand sales and the problems facing UK businesses and their sales people.
I am constantly working with Professional Sales People and Professional Business Owners who, when asked, have the same problems.
There was a study carried out in 1990 with over 300 companies and surprise, surprise the same issues that were present then, are present now, which might tell us that not much progress has been made in the area of sales learning.
Here is one of the problems
Little sharing of Intellectual capital.
Every day individual sales people are adding to their own knowledge about:
Their product or service
- The number of problems that can be solved with their product or service.
- The value proposition attached to individual product within their product range.
- The value that each tier of buyer is interested in.
- Results that are being achieved.
- Common objections that are being overcome.
Their Company
- Company policy.
- Company procedures.
- Marketing and advertising programmes.
- Knowing the right people and departmental contacts within the organisation.
The Competition
- Products.
- Prices.
- Main selling points.
- New product releases.
- Identified weaknesses compared to their own product/service
Yet I find very few have any kind of central hub where they are able to add and share this information and learn from it.
Everyone is either just “winging it” or spending a huge amount of time researching their own “bucket of information.”
Why is this?
- The owner of the knowledge becomes possessive of it—and feels scared about sharing it.
- People fear that sharing the knowledge with others will threaten the person’s status or performance level. Consequently it’s hard to get anyone to share.
- There is no structured process to share the knowledge.
- There is no perceived incentive to share knowledge. Most organisations act like “silos” with everyone competing with everyone else. Hardly a “team environment.”
- Owners and managers don’t see it as important in the sales process for their people, it’s more important to just “go out and sell”
Sharing of knowledge gives a greater confidence, the opportunity to knock out the competition and avoid “The Price Wars”.
More importantly, if there is a central knowledge hub available to all, then time is more effectively spent selling.
Intellectual capital and the sharing of it is quite simply a “development issue.” You have enough expertise within your company to increase revenues 20-50-100% or more.
Do you have a strategy to share that capital?
If not, design a strategy to create a knowledge hub for the benefit of all.
Remember – As part of your strategy, work out how the information is going to be used and USE IT!
Benefits to you and your Company
Improved
- Revenue
- Profits
- Sales conversions
- Length of Sales cycle
- New business creation
- Development of existing clients
- Time efficiency
- Partnership relations
Have a great day selling and “Find a Way and be the Best you can Be”
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Email: dylis@dylisguyan.com
