The role of the sales pro­fes­sional has never been more difficult—the econ­omy is more restric­tive, cus­tomers are more savvy, prod­ucts are more sophis­ti­cated, com­peti­tors are more aggressive.

Today’s Sell­ing Environment:

• Tra­di­tional sources of com­pet­i­tive advan­tage have lost steam
• Com­pe­ti­tion is no longer for mar­kets, but for indi­vid­ual customers
• Prod­uct dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion is largely a thing of the past
• Buy­ers have many com­pe­tent options
• Buy­ers are tense
• The bur­den of prov­ing supe­ri­or­ity lies with the sales professional
• Per­sonal cred­i­bil­ity is the chief deter­mi­nant of sales success

The bot­tom line

The impor­tance of the indi­vid­ual sales pro­fes­sional to cre­ate a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage, to ignite long-term cus­tomer loy­alty, and to pro­mote an unshak­able brand pres­ence in the minds of buy­ers has never been greater.

The respon­si­bil­ity of orga­ni­za­tions to ensure their sales pro­fes­sion­als are inti­mately aligned with the busi­ness strat­egy – and per­son­ally com­mit­ted to its exe­cu­tion has also never been greater.

Sell­ing for vir­tu­ally every indus­try has dra­mat­i­cally changed over the last 10 years. And the recent Great Reces­sion has caused many sales pro­fes­sion­als and the orga­ni­za­tions for whom they work to real­ize they lack the insight and skills needed for sus­tained suc­cess in today’s sell­ing environment.