13 Skills of Entrepreneurial Sales
By Mark Roberts
Sales Leaders, did you know that the solution salesperson who conducts themselves as though they “own” their territory or book of business has a higher probability of being among your top sellers. As one senior VP of Sales I know puts it: “I want salespeople to own their own dirt, behave as if this was their business!” These entrepreneurial-minded team members are a different breed from the average sales team member. If you are interested in learning what they know and 13 skills they all have, please read on!
We’re in the midst of the new Vuca economy－a volatile mix of cutting-edge market trends, new technology, uncertain economic forecasts, internal and external business dynamics, disruption and cultural change. This new economy influences the way our prospects and clients buy from us, and it’s changed their expectations of us as sellers. They aren’t coming to us first for information, and they are doing all the research they can online. When they finally contact us, they expect solutions to their problems. They expect market and applications insights often not found on websites.
There’s enough of a need for today’s modern employee to be entrepreneurial-minded that there’s actually a term for this phenomenon, intrapreneur. Investopedia defines intrapreneurs as “self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented people who take the initiative to pursue an innovative product or service while employed by another party.”
Curiosity + Deep Discovery + Probing = Identified Need
Salespeople who excel in selling solutions have a particular way of thinking about problems posed to them by opportunities. Some may just take the client’s word on what they need, but high-performing sales folks often see situations differently. They have a unique aptitude to understand opportunities to improve a prospect’s or client’s business. Much like entrepreneurs entering a market, these trusted advisor salespeople have an almost supernatural ability to discover, evaluate, and act on gaps in client resources.
Psychologists and business school faculty have determined that the aforementioned opportunity recognition ability is just the kind of thing that makes for great entrepreneurs. These experts have come to define entrepreneurship as the process of introducing something new into the market in response to a lack of resources or a resource mismatch. We all know someone who always has a good idea. But entrepreneurial opportunities are more than just good intentions. Ideas become genuine opportunities when the entrepreneur discovers or creates a way for the concept to be commercially viable or create economic value or provides a resource.
Also, similarly to entrepreneurs, effective sales professionals are intensely curious about their clients. They pursue a more in-depth and broader awareness of their customer’s internal workings, significant market events, relevant trends, and their prospect’s position in the broader industry. Good salespeople don’t just take what the prospect says about their problem at face value. They probe, question, explore, even debunk. These smart salespeople think about how to help their customers address their issues and exploit opportunities in new ways. These salespeople dig in to develop an accurate projection of where both the market and customer are headed. Just like the mindset of successful entrepreneurs, successful solutions salespeople are acutely sensitive to changes in customer, industry, and market patterns. They excel in the discovery phase because they devote more time and engage in a more in-depth analysis of the problem.
A significant component of the discovery phase is making sure the customer is addressing the right problem. High-performing salespeople are obsessed with uncovering and defining the real issue affecting their prospects so they can solve the customers problem completely. This type of discovery isn’t easy. You have to feel comfortable asking sometimes difficult questions. If the salesperson has a high need to be liked they often fail to ask the very questions they need answered to provide the best solution. It includes helping buyers articulate their fundamental problem as well as evaluating possible response options. In some cases, a portion of these options may or may not be addressed with products or services provided by the salesperson’s product or service alone.
While buyers of complex solutions typically express a specific need or problem to solve to the salesperson, many of these buyers have it wrong. They feel the pain, but they don’t know what to do about it, or they want to do something that won’t work. Many times, buyers want the symptom of a problem to go away without identifying the true root cause. It comes as no surprise to many sales leaders and sellers that what buyers need is something altogether different than what they asked for in many cases. The requirements definition effort involves significant and often sensitive work to define the problem and possible solution accurately.
Just as being a successful entrepreneur is a rarity, effectively selling complex solutions is one of the biggest challenges facing sales teams. In future posts, we’ll discuss what benefits the entrepreneurial salesperson will bring to your business.
How can you identify an entrepreneurial salesperson?
1. High Accountability
2. Does not need to be liked but wants to be respected as a trusted advisor
3. Excellent discovery process
4. Active listening
5. Comfort talking about money
6. Strong business acumen
7. Knowledge of customer’s industry
8. Data driven
9. Creates relationships throughout their customers organizations all the way up the C suite
10. Identify economic impact to the customer’s bottom line
11. Strategic with time allocation based on maximum ROI for their activities
12. Growth Mindset
13. Grit- perseverance
Does your sales team have Entrepreneurial Salespeople?
What impact could Entrepreneurial Salespeople have on your customer’s bottom-line? (Or how about yours?)
How are you training your salespeople to manage their area of responsibility like it was their own dirt?
