As if making a sale wasn't difficult enough, a new report shows that buyers' poor perception of the sales
profession creates hurdles for salespeople and their employers.
It's widely believed that the quickest way to making a sale is to understand a prospect's problems and explain
how you can solve them. Despite all of the time and money spent training salespeople to be consultative, however, they are not making inroads to becoming business partners.
In fact, 46 percent of people with buying responsibility wouldn't be proud to call themselves sales
professionals, according to Development Dimensions International's (DDI) Global Sales Perceptions Report. DDI, a global human resources consulting firm, surveyed 2,700 corporate buyers from
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. to explore views of and experiences with the sales profession.
"Buyers' general perception is that salespeople don't listen, are pushy, and they don't take the time to
understand buyers' needs or even their own products. It's hard to be a business advisor when the relationship is a one-way street," says Bradford Thomas, manager of DDI's Sales Talent Practice.
Forty-one percent of respondents rated the overall quality of the sales profession "fair" or "poor."
"Salespeople shouldn't settle for this mediocre perception," Thomas says. "And companies shouldn't either. Do you really want most of your customers to feel lukewarm about your sales team?"
One sales and marketing strategist emphasizes that prospects won't hang around long waiting for companies to resolve
these sorts of perception problems. "If a salesperson can't add value to something other than the fact that they're an official agent, I don't think that job is going to continue for long," says
Brian Pleet, President of Calgary-based Strategico Marketing Group Inc.
Descriptions of salespeople in the study include “charm school graduates,” “leeches” and “rashes.”
One U.S. buyer said the problem is "too many under-trained, underpaid young professionals who probably won't be
there in a year. They have few resources for information and aren't trained to know how or where to look for help."
Descriptions of salespeople in the study include "charm school graduates," "leeches" and "rashes." One in five
buyers believes that salespeople's expertise is getting worse.
In the wake of years of public business scandals, trust has become a precursor to relationship building. More than 40
percent of buyers have increased their expectations of salespeople's business and industry knowledge. One-third of survey respondents reported that they don't receive the level of support they
need from salespeople.
"Salespeople need to keep up with the changing needs and demands of their clients to meet these rising
expectations," Thomas says. "If you want your salespeople to build value-added relationships with clients, you need to hire people who are good listeners and problem solvers, not hit-and-run
sellers."
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Illustration by Travis Foster
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"Buyers' general perception is that salespeople don't listen, are pushy, and they don't take the time to
understand buyers' needs or even their own products. It's hard to be a business advisor when the relationship is a one-way street," says Bradford Thomas, manager of DDI's Sales Talent Practice.
One sales and marketing strategist emphasizes that prospects won't hang around long waiting for companies to resolve
these sorts of perception problems. "If a salesperson can't add value to something other than the fact that they're an official agent, I don't think that job is going to continue for long," says
Brian Pleet, President of Calgary-based Strategico Marketing Group Inc.
