BrainTrust Query: Has the Skill Level of Salespeople Decreased?

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Getting Personal About Business, the blog of Zahn Consulting.

Over the years, I have been struck by how much sales training is delivered, and how often it is sub-optimal.

I began in sales training believing that it was incumbent upon the salesperson to uncover needs, identify "pain points" of the prospect or customer, and link product or services to those needs. For years, I worked to refine my skills in honing the ability to zero in on the proper questions to ask; the "bridge to a close," and the sales process methods to "get to Yes," etc.

I would conduct two-day workshops where I would trot out forms, profiles, processes, etc. all designed to reinforce the skills of "best in class" salespeople, all the while believing that the answer to sales success lay in the application of the skills being trained. Skill in rapport was something that was "hired in" as it was not easily trained. Either someone "had it, or not." Sure, we trained people on how to do the steps mechanically (shake hands, make eye contact, look for pictures or trophies in the buyer’s office to comment on, etc.), but it did not lead to success.

After speaking with numerous executives, what I think is missing from many traditional ways salespeople are taught today is "the other side of the equation" — the buyer’s thoughts; successful approaches to increase receptivity, ways of building mutual or collaborative approaches, etc.. The current "Conceptual Selling" or "Consultative Approaches" are too focused on being fact-based, data-driven, and following a very "Seller-Process focused" approach.

The key skill of relationship building and being trustworthy has been given short-shrift or assumed to be a "given." There needs to be more focus on the very skills that differentiate interacting with a sales person vs. the internet:

  • The ability to share the emotion of the sale, not just a talking fact sheet.
  • The importance of telling a story and providing context to the benefits of the purchase.
  • Developing trust with the company, the sales person, the product/service.

What is needed is enhancement of those skills by identifying them, "codifying" them, and developing those competencies.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions: Has the overall skill level of retail salespeople decreased? Can rapport and the emotive side of selling be taught to sales associates?

Poll

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Anne Howe
Anne Howe
12 years ago

When I read this, I think of the age old selling relationship between manufacturer and retailer, not of retail sales associates to shoppers. That said, I think the fact-based process driven approach is still valid, but ONLY if the buyer’s side POV is baked in up front.

The difference is in the output and delivery. There has to be a story woven in contextually, and that story needs to be constructed to hit a home run with the person to whom you are selling.

Dick Seesel
Dick Seesel
12 years ago

Let’s face it: This issue goes hand-in-hand with yesterday’s discussion about payroll levels for store associates. Retailers managing their selling costs to the “lowest common denominator” — in terms of hiring minimum-wage workers and in terms of minimal training expense — will get what they deserve in return, unless the quality of the sales associate is irrelevant to their strategic position.

Paula Rosenblum
Paula Rosenblum
12 years ago

I think we have to differentiate between commissioned salespeople (who tend to need to know a lot about product feature/benefits and the brand commitment) and people who are cashiers or just placing product on the shelf.

I think there are fewer commissioned salespeople, and so it appears quality has declined. But overall, it’s about the same.

Bob Phibbs
Bob Phibbs
12 years ago

Great thoughts David and dovetails well into yesterday’s discussion about compensation. The whole “facts” approach works but, as I wrote in "You Can’t Feel A Fact," only when talking to those who are the Analytical personality style.

So many retailers are going backwards trying to hire people who have “previous experience” at a competitor because they feel the ramp-up to understand the facts about their products is too long. “Have them learn on someone else’s dime” could have worked if sales training were still taught, but it isn’t.

I’m a sales trainer for some of the biggest brands in the world because they’ve found customers don’t respond to facts, but people. Sounds basic but in a fact-driven world, the key to driving retail sales — especially the premium brands — is smiling back at you, not vomiting the same information a customer can read online.

David Biernbaum
David Biernbaum
12 years ago

The skills of salespeople in the consumer packaged goods industry have definitely shifted to data driven, fact based, consultative selling. In decline are the passion, the romance of the product, the forward thinking, and the vision. Not all products are best explained through the rear view mirror and not all retail decisions should be “rationalized.” Consumers crave what we do; new and innovative, differentiation, and individuality. At David Biernbaum & Associates LLC we look at the consumer goods industry zealously and we associate ourselves with reps and client companies and brands that love their jobs! It sounds cliched but it’s so true.

Ian Percy
Ian Percy
12 years ago

I was singing “Alleluia” right down to the second last sentence. Words like emotion, not just facts; telling a story; benefits; trust — were making me all tingly. And just before we all actually became truly human we were instructed to “codify” those “competencies.”

Here’s the thing. Emotion, understanding, trust, etc., are not “competencies” nor do they lend themselves to “codifying.” I’m always amused at companies who put things like “trust” and “honesty” on their list of values. Did they actually consider listing the alternatives? You can’t put on a two-day program on ‘trust’ though we tried back in the early seventies where we fell into each others arms off of conference room tables and celebrated that we didn’t let go of the rope that was holding our boss over the side of the cliff, saving him from certain death. Ah…the trust!

What’s missing is a way to help our employees have a deeper understanding of who they are,what they believe and what their purpose is. Until they unlock the passion in their own heart and spirit everything else is a facade. Fortunately for retail, even a facade produces a sale every once in a while.

Ryan Mathews
Ryan Mathews
12 years ago

I think most Americans aren’t comfortable with the idea of giving service and so, over time, sales has stopped being a career and become a job — and not a highly prized one at that.

As long as customers and salespeople think of themselves as a subcategory of humanity, skill levels won’t improve. Why bother?

You really can’t teach emotion or rapport, but you can work toward teaching better ways of approaching customers. We’re not all that friendly a nation anymore. Why should our salespeople be expected to be any friendlier?

Dan Raftery
Dan Raftery
12 years ago

Not decreased, so much as narrowed. When consultative selling techniques began to take hold (during the developmental years of Category Management, for the youngsters), the selling skills which were valued and which provided results were focused on relationship-building. In those early years it was painfully obvious that those skilled in the old way were struggling with the new way. And the fear, which has proven to be true, was that the relationship-building skills would drift away.

The advocates of Category Management and fact-based selling in general did a great job of inserting a kind of “scientific” wall between buyer and seller in the food and drug CPG world. We now live in that colder environment.

Here’s an indicator for you: golf events. They are less abundant and more difficult for manufacturers to budget. Those who participate in these events (there are certainly other ways to do this — I just happen to like golf) know the relationship-building value, even if they are duffers.

Mel Kleiman
Mel Kleiman
12 years ago

If we are talking about retail on-the-floor selling personnel, we are in most cases not talking about sales people, we are talking about customer service associates. Take the customer to the product, stack the shelves, refold the merchandise, and hopefully be able to answer a question.

If we are looking for sales personnel, it needs to be a totally different selection and training process and most retailers have no desire to invest the time or money.

Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D.
Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D.
12 years ago

Creating behavior change takes time. Presenting principles does not create learning. Practice, role playing, critiques, and more practice create experiential learning. That is time consuming and expensive. Companies typically do the first part of the training. Continuing that level of training over time with a continual influx of new hires is demanding, time consuming and expensive. As a result, the training becomes shortened, the behavioral learning does not occur and service suffers.

Steve Montgomery
Steve Montgomery
12 years ago

Most people at retail are not salespeople, they are clerks. They have been trained to take money from customers, but few have been trained to actually help customers make purchase decisions. Their skills have not declined because most were never taught how to sell, but rather how to record a sale. True, there are exceptions both individually and by company.

In my experience you can teach people how to be a cashier but you cannot teach them how to relate to people. That is something they come with or don’t.

Paul Sikkema
Paul Sikkema
12 years ago

Features Tell, Benefits Sell.

When you figure that out, your sales will increase exponentially!

Yes, it is that simple.

Miriam Gomberg
Miriam Gomberg
12 years ago

As a customer service and training manager for a major retail store, I agree that payroll is not in line with the level of service. However, more than pay scale, company culture is even more important. Does the associate feel valued by management or corporate or dispensable?

I think in general, customer expectations have risen more so than selling skills have decreased. People are turning away from self-service mass retail and embracing a more personal experience. The problem is that the days of small business (I owned and operated a bridal store for 15 years) are gone and have been replaced by the Walmarts of the world.

Denise Yohn
Denise Yohn
12 years ago

I recently wrote a piece about this, entitled “The Sales Associate of Tomorrow” — salesmanship, customer relationship management, and customer advocacy are among the qualifications that are becoming increasingly important.

Roberto Orci
Roberto Orci
12 years ago

It is less a question of whether or not sales skills can be taught; it may be more of a resource issue. After working with many client companies in marketing and sales we see a “thinning out of the herd” where training has become a luxury. And this can be seen across most disciplines. Short term productivity seems to rule the roost.

Doug Fleener
Doug Fleener
12 years ago

Good article David and I appreciate everyone’s comments. I think Bob and Ian hit the nail on the head. The connection that customers make with the employee is so much more important than the information.

This is especially true with a much more informed consumer. It starts with finding and hiring the right people, and not salespeople. You can teach someone to sell, but you can’t teach them to care.

I believe the other issue is that in most stores “salespeople” are expected or trained to sell. They’re clerks. The specialty retailers we work with expect their employees to deliver both a great store experience and a sale … which of course go hand in hand when you have the right people.

Bob Innes
Bob Innes
12 years ago

You have hit the proverbial nail on the head! EVERYONE knows it’s about the ability to develop and cultivate a relationship, yet no one except this article uncovers that this skill is severely lacking in most sales training. One statement rings true to this end: “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

In my training, that quote is the team’s mantra. I ask, what did you do today to illustrate that you truly care about increasing the customer’s business? If they stutter or don’t have an answer, it’s not acceptable; good news, you get to start over tomorrow.

Until sales organizations embrace and hire those people first with a history of driving relationships, sales performance is likely to suffer. It’s called human relations.

Tim Henderson
Tim Henderson
12 years ago

There’s little doubt that the overall skill level of retail salespeople has diminished over the years. And there are several reasons for that lessening in skills, including that many consumers view retail as a dead-end career, low wages and lack of training.

What’s interesting about this discussion item is that it hits on what I believe is one of the bigger issues among retail associates: that they’re not people persons, i.e., to be a successful sales associate, one must like working with people, i.e., talking to them, helping them, finding out about their lives outside the store so they know how they’ll use the product, building trust, etc. Yes, plenty of sales people can successfully sell to others they like, e.g., the techie sales staffer loves chatting with the techie customer. But can that sales staffer carry on a decent conversation — and close the sale — with a non-techie who needs help making their first smartphone purchase?

To a certain degree, some emotive and rapport skills can be taught. But the sales winners will always be people like working with people.

David Zahn
David Zahn
12 years ago

Thanks for all of the feedback and comments. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the replies and the insights shared.

Gordon Arnold
Gordon Arnold
12 years ago

There is much to agree with in this article. Many retail companies are expanding towards perceived customer needs on a scale that demands more sales ability than just order taking or merchandising. These multifaceted market endeavors are in fact very profitable for all involved when the program is properly rolled out and regularly tuned for perfection. Companies that are consistently successful with consultative sales always use marketing and sales professionals to spearhead these new and exciting advisory approach market expansions.

And it is from highly trained sales and marketing professionals that you get the best coaching for the existing sales people. In a true sales environment, students first learn and accept that all aspects of sales can be precisely taught and they, the students, can be accurately examined for retention, understanding and proficiency in a classroom environment. Skill of any type is recognized as an observation of a person(s) that constantly practices what they learned to repeatedly take the opportunities they are presented with to the highest level of success attainable.

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.
Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.
12 years ago

I’m very impressed by the level of obvious sales competence resident in the commentariat here. Like many of you, I have had a lot of experience and training in this area myself, but have moved my focus from sales as associated with a sales associate, to the parallel process of “selling” in a strictly self-service (self-selling) environment. That is, sans sales associate. You can get more of what I am talking about here, from “The Amazonian Ghost.”

I see the challenge of self-service “selling” as getting to the close. I’m sure many here have heard the dictum, “Close early and close often.” Bottom line: ALL selling is about the close. The reality is that with self-service retailing, closing skills were lost 100 years ago, with the advent of self-service. I just wish more people in the industry would join me in, not thinking about staff when thinking about selling, but thinking about selling as it MUST be done in a self-service environment.

Meanwhile, dunderhead technology is flooding the retail space, that is just as brain-dead in terms of “selling” as are the retailers and suppliers already functioning there. Obviously many of you know more about selling than is apparent in your advice on self-service retailing. You’re in danger of investing your skills in solving an irrelevant (to self-service) problem.

Jim Dunn
Jim Dunn
12 years ago

Ninety percent of salespeople are focused on the pitch. They are poor at qualifying the opportunity. The buyer has a system that encourages salespeople to provide a lot of “unpaid consulting” which results in a low closing rate. Today people are looking for problem solvers not product pushers. Unfortunately, they get the product pusher for the most part.

So have selling skills decreased? No, they are the same, but they have not been updated to address the myriad of changes in the marketplace and the buyer/seller dynamic.

Li McClelland
Li McClelland
12 years ago

Many customers still do want the old fashioned hands-on see and touch tactile experience with a product before plunking down their credit card. But there’s a reason consumers handle much of their research, product investigation and comparison shopping (and also read reviews) online before ever entering the bricks and mortar store. Hint: it has to do with the expectation of a poor product knowledge level from the sales associates in-store.

Robert DiPietro
Robert DiPietro
12 years ago

The lack of skill level is dwindling. Salespeople don’t know the product and have no sense of sales as an art. Build rapport, trust and solve problems — the salesperson is not in!

Kai Clarke
Kai Clarke
12 years ago

No. Retailing is much more complex, and the art of selling in this Internet enabled environment demands a smarter, tech-saavy, business-smart salesperson. This does include a level of relationship skills, but also means that the traditional “trainable” selling skills are even more applicable today. Successful sales will depend on a successful person at some point in the selling cycle. People buy from people they like, and this is why the relationship portion of selling is still important. However, this does not mean that salespeople have or need fewer skills to be successful.

Ken Dailey
Ken Dailey
12 years ago

The real question is, has everyone else’s level increased? If so comparatively, you could argue that the salesperson’s skill level is now even or even less than everyone else’s. So… if all things are even, it comes down to the foundations of listening and understanding common goals and issues to be able to communicate solutions in a sincere manner. That means manipulative techniques are out; time is short and the need to get to the point is more critical than ever.