Many people are unknowingly draining their field sales organization of top salespeople.
Many companies have a career ladder for their salespeople. In the example of the company I bring up, they, like most others, have a predetermined career ladder. Once one reached the position of field salesperson, after working as an inside salesperson, the only option left was to become a Key Account Manager. Then there remained the possibility of becoming a sales manager, but since there was a lack of places it was necessary to consider other managerial positions or to change companies. Writes Christer B Jansson in this month’s article.
However, it turned out when I followed up these top performers who came from being a field salesperson that there were many who failed as a Key Account. They could not go back to their old job as there was a new successor to their old field sales position. So either they quit voluntarily by looking for new work or they got a few extra months’ wages over the contract and left voluntarily.
All in all a huge failure and also financially expensive and damaging to the company. It also meant that the field sales organization was drained of its best salespeople, which is terribly stupid. I had an idea that it was about Selling and Buying Styles that set the whole thing. In other words, if the field salesperson were to succeed as a Key Account, this would not be a problem.
In 2000, a behavioral study was conducted on how 300,000 salespeople conducted their sales visits/sales presentations and found six different clusters of behavior that we call sales style. These six trained behaviors bleed into each other a bit but we could say that there are six different selling styles. At the same time as this research report was presented to the Southwestern Psychological Organization, a professor of purchasing shouted to. He said he had identified six buying styles that were very similar to the six styles we discovered and that he didn’t have any big statistical studies behind him like we did. The collaboration resulted in a product (test) that deals with Selling styles and how to buy in, i.e. buying styles. The Selling Styles SSPA test is available on the market today.
The six different selling styles and their characteristics;
Below you will find a description of a salesperson’s likely selling behavior expressed in the six selling styles. Most salespeople tested master two of these styles more or less well.
Service-Oriented sales
This salesperson’s primary selling behavior emphasizes personal trustworthiness, keeping commitments, meeting or exceeding customer expectations, and above all, keeping promises. Because this style is clearly focused on what the seller promises to do for the customer after the purchase, it is called Service-Oriented Selling.
Competition-Oriented sales
This selling style is focused on persuasion and targeted personal influence. Such behaviors are often found in salespeople who describe sales in terms of results and like to compete in their sales. Therefore, this selling style is called Competitive Selling.
Image-Oriented sales
This sales behavior consists of “packaging and selling” a professional self-image. This may include developing a presentation language that sounds professional and using sophisticated supporting materials and illustrations. Because this selling style focuses on the seller’s credibility (as opposed to the product, the buyer, or the buyer’s needs), it is called Image-Oriented Selling.
Needs-Oriented sales
This selling style focuses on identifying existing customer needs that can be met with the current product or service, rather than creating a need in the customer. Because the style focuses on identifying customer needs, it is called Needs Oriented Selling.
Product-Oriented Selling
This selling style focuses on describing, outlining, explaining and detailing the product’s features and benefits. The style is called Product Oriented selling because it focuses on the product.
Relationship-Oriented sales
This selling style is based on creating a relationship characterized by trust and mutual concern. This approach is customer or client focused rather than product, credibility, need or service focused. That is why it is called Relationship Oriented selling.
So we chose to test the successful salespeople in the field and the successful Key Account salespeople to see if there was any difference that could explain it all. What we found was that the field salespeople had a combination of needs-oriented selling combined with competition-oriented selling. The successful Key Accounts also had needs-oriented sales but in combination with service-oriented sales.
So in other words these new Key Accounts became salesy and laborious as they focused on the close after the needs analysis instead of ensuring reliable deliveries, making sure promises are kept and where Competitive Oriented Selling is needed they would instead send in a field salesperson to do that work.
If we are going to move a good field salesperson to Key Account, they need sales training in service-oriented sales and tone down his competitive sales style. Alternatively, find other rewards so that the field salesperson stays in his field sales job and continues to be a top salesperson who feels appreciated, seen and continues to deliver. If this is the case, we have to look for the new Key Account seller outside the company.
It takes time to learn additional selling styles and the advantage of knowing more styles is that you can sell to more types of customers and likely succeed in more industries. Most salespeople master two styles quite well, so if you are going to process a new target group, you need to think about whether your way of selling fits the target group you will be doing business with.
You as a sales manager also need to think about this and did you know that depending on the sales style your salespeople have, they react very differently to different coaching methods from you as a manager. So choose your coaching style or find a sales coach that suits your salespeople’s sales style and it will be really good.
Perhaps the first thing you should do is identify the sales styles your sales organization has and if possible the buying styles of important customers so you know how to coach your salespeople, handle important customers, why you have difficulty getting certain customers that may depend on your sales styles.
