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    The Ladder of Sales Competence

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    In psychology there’s a model called “the four stages of competence” that explains how people move through different stages when learning new competencies. I find this model interesting to have in mind when it comes to sales competence and sales technology.

    With Internet at everyone’s fingertips, sales knowledge is easily available. But how do we go from knowledge to competence - from theory to practice? Let’s look at how Linda, a young sales professional, moves through these stages (like the rungs of a ladder) in regards to the classic questioning sales methodology SPIN by Neil Rackham.

    competence_ladder.jpg
     Photo by Susanne Nilsson

    1) Unconscious incompetence
    In this state of blissful ignorance, Linda does not know what she does not know. She has never heard of the SPIN questioning methodology, nor does she understand the value that SPIN could provide. One day, when speaking to a successful colleague, Linda is given the advice to learn about SPIN, taking Linda to the next rung of the competence ladder:

    2) Conscious incompetence
    By hearing the story from her trusted friend, Linda now knows what she didn't know before and has been convinced that she’d benefit from this competence. She orders Neil Rackham’s classic book from Amazon and is eager to learn this methodology.

    3) Conscious competence
    When reading the book and trying the methodology out with her friend as her mentor, Linda is putting knowledge into action and soon starts using SPIN in her daily conversations with customers. She now knows that she knows SPIN, but constantly needs to remind herself when and how to use it. She realizes that she has more work to do before becoming a master at it. By continually practicing SPIN, Linda works her way to the next stage:

    4) Unconscious competence
    When having used SPIN for a longer period of time, it has become second nature to Linda. She’s now asking the right questions at the right time without even thinking about it - it’s like riding a bike: once mastered it, it sticks. For Linda, the new skill creates more meaningful dialogues and helps her gain trust and business from more clients.

    "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
    Aristotle

    In the model, this fourth level is the highest state of competence. However, there’s a risk that Linda becomes complacent and treats this state as a constant, instead of further fine-tuning her approach, maybe by using specific language matched to the personality styles of the people she’s talking to. Inspired by the blog article “the mindful leader” from azzur (http://goo.gl/Dknb3r), I think a fifth layer should be added:

    5) Mindful competence

    By being mindful to how you do what you do and the responses you get from other people, you can find nuances to improve. Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer (with colleagues Timothy Russell and Noah Eisenkraft) has done research into the positive effect of mindfulness on performance. Orchestra musicians were asked to replicate a classical performance with which they were satisfied (mindless) and then make the piece new through subtle adjustments they each chose (mindful). Not only did the musicians prefer playing mindfully, on playback audiences judged the mindful piece far superior. In the same way, sales people can be coached to raise the bar of their performance.

    The classic pitfall – getting stuck at conscious incompetence

    How often do we order books and don’t read them? How often do we read books and don’t go from theory to practice? How often do organizations send their sales people to training classes only to be disappointed when they revert back to old behaviors just weeks after the training? As much as 87% of what we learn is forgotten if we don’t go through stages 3 to 4. In simpler words – there will be no results without practice and reinforcement.

    The role of process and technology to increase sales competency

    By including educational content and checklist steps within the context of a staged and milestone-centric sales process that is easy to follow, sales managers can make knowledge actionable and help sales people climb the ladder of competence quicker. This is especially helpful when ramping up new sales hires and can save companies large amounts of money. Or when we introduce a new product line and can’t rely on sales people having the best sales behaviors in their backbone.

    Download "5 Key Factors for Successful Selling in the Buyer 2.0 Era" here

     

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    George Brontén
    Published November 18, 2015
    By George Brontén

    George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.

    Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn