What is professional sales competency? What really determines if salespeople are any good? What do "great" salespeople have?

To begin understanding sales competency, you have to begin with the ultimate assumptions about professional selling.

Can we all agree that professional selling is ultimately:

1 - Grounded to a buyer(s) behavior and decision process?

2 - Focused on helping a transaction occur?

3 - Bound by an ethical responsibility to do "what is right"?

If we can all agree on these things from all sides of the table we can begin to dissect the sales profession step by step using the system's approach. If the buyer, marketing, purchasing, and even HR professionals can agree to this, then we can begin to arrive at a common definition of "sales competency." Obviously, this is a long way away. Though I have worked on the definition of "what" professional selling competency is for six years, I still have work to do to frame it up all the way.

Sales competency is ultimately defined as a salesperson's knowledge, skill, abilities, and values. All four components must be in alignment to the customer in order for a sales professional to become competent. Because competence is defined as knowledge, skill, abilities, and values, sales professionals have a difficult job ahead of them if they wish to become better. Becoming better is not easy and most sales organizations do not provide adequate training to cover the breadth of competency - because it has never really been defined before.

Effective sales professionals are continuously learning and they have developed a framework and process for accessing their knowledge. They have a solid "knowledge foundation" and they understand their strengths and weaknesses. Because skill is determined by the knowledge a salesperson has gained plus their experience level, salespeople do get better over time. But it takes too long in almost everyone's opinion. Sales Management wishes that sales people would "ramp up" quicker. Sales people wish they could sell more, faster. The buyer wishes that all salespeople were "competent" and reliable.

Some of the most skilled sales professionals have stayed in one vertical market or industry for a longer period of time. They have also stayed in the same sales role for a longer length of time (such as outside sales). Why? They have followed a defined career path with increasing levels of responsibility and complexity of sale and they have been able to gain effectiveness, efficiency, and competency.

Ironically, a "truly" competent salesperson would have the ability to move into any organization and gain the trust of the buying decision-makers. They would be able to create a situation where buying can occur within an ethical environment at a fair price no matter who they worked for. They would have the knowledge to speak to a CEO, the front-line manager, or the newest employee about what issues and challenges they face almost immediately - no matter what vertical market they served.

The way to get there is to strive and push to increase their knowledge, skill, and ability so they can be the best at what you do.