Sales Competence Assessment^™

Qualifying a prospect is the systematic process of carefully verifying whether or not a prospect is willing and able to buy. Qualifying a prospect begins by analysing the target audience and determining what their needs and wants are. It includes identifying the target audience, determining the needs and wants of the target audience, and identifying any necessary steps required to close the sale.

Establishing rapport is important in sales situations. Being able to create trust and rapport with prospects quickly can lead to open and trusting atmosphere for honest communication and sharing of information. Adjusting one’s own personality style to the style of the prospect in order to create a sense of ease for the prospect is one of the skills assessed here.

Sales professionals are often faced with a variety of complex and diverse challenges that need to be systematically solved. It is imperative that they have the patience and attention to detail to follow a step-by-step process and remain calm and focused in the face of the complexity and uncertainty believing that systematically following well-defined processes will produce the best results.

Viewing stalls and objections as opportunities to be politely assertive and asking the prospect self-discovery type questions in order to get the prospect to deal with their own objections.

Typically, a skilled salesperson would want to find out why your prospect is hesitant to purchase and each obstacle they mention is a new opportunity for the sales professional to explore their mindset.

Unless you know your prospect, you won't know how to market your product or service to their specific needs. Thus the need to create a structured system of questions to know the prospect's situation and determine the likelihood of a fit between the prospect's needs and the salespersons product or service.

The key to being a good salesperson is to take time to fully understand the prospect's perspective. The sales professional actually seeks to understand what the prospect is attempting to communicate through subtle communication cues such as words, tonality, and body language.

Successful sales professionals know how to make a connection with their audience and engage them in a conversation through good communication skills, insightful questions and dramatic presentation techniques tailoring their presentation to topics and issues that are important to their prospects.

A sales professional demonstrates their expertise by being able to set the conditions for a meeting, describing the process to a prospect, and stating potential outcomes are all important factors when it comes to being professional. 

A great sales professional competently manages one's schedule and activities to make the best use of time on activities to generate sales and not wasting time on "avoidance" behaviours.

The need for a strong sense of time management is essential and an excellent salesperson is able to figure out what tasks must be completed, what items can be delegated, and what tasks can be deferred.

High level performance comes from dedication, hard-work, and pursuing a goal. While setting a goal is a good start, the sales professional should do the necessary activities in pursuit of the goal, rarely being satisfied with their own current level of performance. 

The qualities of ambition and initiative are extremely important in order to make it big in the world of sales. Without these two qualities, you will never be able to reach your full potential or realize your goals. The qualities of ambition and initiative are evident by the way you proceed through your day. Ambitious individuals are noted by their motivation and determination, while the initiative taken by these individuals is often noted by their willingness to take risks. These two qualities have the ability to take an individual from being average to being one of the best in their field.

Sales is a struggle especially if you are new to the job. While it is important to remember that rejection and failure happen to everybody, it's important to know how a salesperson deals with rejection and failure so we can create a plan that will increase their chances of success.

Gaining trust is defined as respecting the prospect by giving them the time they need to consider your offer. A good salesperson respects their prospects' time and let them know that they will still to continue to provide information that may help them make their decision in the future.

A good salesperson relentlessly pursues winning, striving to gain competitive advantage and looking to improve more. This can be objectively determined as well in the Sales Competence Assessment test.

There are some salespeople, though good, who doesn't apply current knowledge to solve new problems and spends little time solving problems while that are others who apply existing knowledge to solve new problems with the ability to suspend judgment to check the validity of a proposition and taking multiple perspectives into consideration. This can be assessed in the Sales Competence Assessment as well.

Successful salespeople need to have a healthy view around money and seen as a just compensation for goods and services. A healthy concept around money is one of the tools needed to attain success in this endeavor.

The ability to avoid getting engaged in the sales process with one’s own or the prospect’s emotions is one important aspect of the sales process. It shields the sales professional from reacting emotionally instead of objectively and rationally. The Sales Competency Test will also enable you to see your emotional distance quotient.