Are You Changing With The Times Or Are You Going To Be Left behind?

The profession of selling is changing and has been for a number of years. This change is being driven by:

- Advances in technology
- Changing consumer attitudes
- Increased competition
- An aging population
- Increased consumer annoyance with repetitive sales tactics that offer nothing new
- Corporate ethics
- A global market place
- Corporate mergers, restructuring and re-defining

All of these create significant challenges for today’s sales professional. The question is; how are you adjusting your sales activities and techniques in response to these shifts and changing tides? If you are still selling today the way you did in the 60’s, 70’s or even the 90’s you may be discovering that you are losing valuable ground in the market place.

If you want to know if you are current with your product knowledge, market savvy and sales skills it is only necessary to observe a few simple trends or tendencies such as:

- Sales cycle length
- Margin erosion
- Price sensitivity
- Success of marketing strategies
- Repeat or referral business
- New customer acquisition challenges
- Customer turnover
- Customer loyalty

There are others, but most of these, if you will study them will give you an indication as to whether you need to re-tool your tactics, strategies, approaches or attitudes.

If everything you are doing is working to your satisfaction and is contributing to continued success then I will bet you are growing and changing. The question is, are you anticipating the need for these changes before you need to make them or are your competitors beating you to the punch?

Here are a few things to think about.

1.When was the last time you conducted a customer survey?
2. When was the last time you conducted a prospect survey?
3. How many sales books did you read last year?
4. How many career development activities did you participate in last year?
5. Have you read any recently released books by futurists?
6. Do you have a mentor or coach that helps you stay current?
7. Do you belong to a sales mastermind group?
8. Do you study your competitor’s strategies and approaches?
9. Do you carefully evaluate your prospect’s and client’s business models and how they are changing? Impacting you or your organization?
10. Do you network with other salespeople to discover what they are learning?
11. Do you attend your client’s or prospect’s industry trade shows?
12. Do you subscribe to publications in your client’s or prospect’s industries?

Granted, a lot of things to do but if you want to be successful or even still around in the next five years you might want to consider including as many of the above into your personal and career development philosophy as possible.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 91 Challenges Managers Face Today and Your First Year In Sales. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his website at www.timconnor.com.

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