Finding Hidden Sales Talent in Your Staff

In this post, I address the issue of identifying skills within non-sales people that might indicate their potential to become more involved in growing business.

Let me start by drawing your attention to the Harvard Business Review article Do You Really Know Who Your Best Salespeople Are? The article provides research that echo my Selling MBA approach to consultative selling. Though every person in the organization should be conscious of sales, there are some attributes that you may want to seek or cultivate to increase the value of your non-sales staff in the sales and business development process.

Remember, we are not interested in selling things our clients do not need. Instead, we focus on challenges our clients face where we might be able to offer a solution. So be on the lookout for the following characteristics.

Subject Matter Expertise: Clients are most likely to value individuals who have experience in their industry, have solved specific issues, or have valued credentials that might reduce risk for the client. Just saying that you have sharp people is not enough. We need to demonstrate tangible outcomes. Identify staff who have experience producing results.Active Listeners / Creative Thinkers: In selling situations, most professionals have learned the importance of questions. However, active listening is an art that must be mastered. What we mean by active listening is being fully-engaged with the client and listening for the answers within the answers. We can tell when someone is

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