Do Your Salespeople Have a Secret Sales Ingredient?

By Tom Searcy

Once your sellers have developed a basic understanding of selling, is it better to focus on helping them become incrementally better at each skill or to focus on helping them master one key skill?

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee gave this bit of wisdom to basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he was on the set of their movie, Game of Death. From that point forward, Abdul-Jabbar focused most of his efforts on the hook shot and mastered it over all others. His statistics and level of mastery of the game of basketball are legendary as a result.

There is a base set of skills that all players in basketball need – just as there is a base set of skills salespeople need to participate in the field of professional sales. This list for selling includes:

  • Pre-call planning
  • Building rapport
  • Diagnosing pain and need
  • Presenting solutions
  • Closing
  • Following up
  • Completing the details

Your list might be slightly different, but the point remains the same – there is a list of basic expectations of a salesperson. If you accept the idea that a great salesperson could focus all of his or her efforts on just one or two skills to become a world-class seller, what would those skills be? You may be surprised at how quickly your sellers rise to the top to become overwhelming champions by mastering only one or two of the following sales skills.

Value Pivoting
Value pivoting is the ability to reshape conversations toward the unique advantages of your company. This is not just the ability to sell the value proposition or communicate why there is a competitive advantage. This skill is the ability to change what the customer believes is valuable when all competitors are compared. Because what is valuable has been redefined, the person representing the company that has those values wins. This occurs because this salesperson has the skill of pivoting what the customer values.

Uphill Traversing
Uphill traversing is the ability to keep consideration of the solution moving forward regardless of resistance. Nothing keeps progress from happening for sellers with this skill even if contracts have been awarded to competitors, budgets have been slashed, turnover has occurred, or there has been a spending freeze. It does not matter. This skill holder is able to make incremental or even significant steps forward despite roadblocks. An uphill traverser not only maintains contacts, but also keeps information flowing, which opens the door for a seller to seize unique opportunities.

Offsetting
Offsetting is the ability to set one or more people, competitors, markets, or other items against each other to secure an advantage. By positioning several elements under consideration against opposite or offsetting points, the seller positions his or her solution as the best when compared against competitors. This skill is often exhibited by sellers who use a “win by not losing” strategy. Industries in which this is necessary include government, construction, and IT systems.

Ladder Climbing
Ladder climbing refers to the ability of a seller to gain access to the top executives of an organization with seemingly little effort and without damaging relationships with subordinates along the way. This skill includes connecting and developing referrals, but always with the ability to get to the very top decision makers. Once at that level, the owner of this skill does not lose contact with the top contacts regardless of the referral or delegation into any other level of company. Sellers with this skill know how to keep the connection alive.

Fortune Telling
The fortune-teller ability refers to the ability to understand the industry and marketplace of the prospect and speak convincingly to best position the seller to win a deal. This seller must be able to shape a conversation around anticipated changes in the market that the prospect must also anticipate. This skill owner develops a reputation as a trusted expert who has a solution to an unsure future. Viable examples reinforce this perception.

I can name several people who have one of the above skills, but not one who has mastered several. Each of the people I am thinking of has one, and only one. But they are each at the very top of their company’s producers, sometimes their industries. Not the top 10 percent – I mean number one. It means having one kick, practiced 10,000 times. They do all of the basics above average, of course. However, it is the unique skill – not the incremental improvement of all basics – that makes them the best.

Tom Searcy is CEO and founder of Hunt Big Sales – a sales strategy company that helps CEOs double the size of their company – and author of Life After the Death of Selling: How to Thrive in the New Era of Sales. Follow @tomsearcy.