Sales competence

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The term sales competence describes the ability of executives and employees to efficiently design the sales process in terms of corporate goals (planning, organization and control).

Meaning and conceptual delimitation

The terms distribution and sales (and consequently distribution and sales competence) are mostly used synonymously. However, there is a difference from the point of view of business administration . One speaks of sales when it comes to personal sales as part of the communication policy of the marketing mix . This is especially true for consumer goods marketing . In capital goods marketing, where the focus is on the marketing of technology and knowledge-intensive products and services that require explanation, personal sales are part of the distribution policy . A distinction is made between the acquisition (selection, acquisition and retention of customers) and the physical or logistic (storage and transport) distribution policy. A more detailed description can be found in the article Sales Process .

The volume of sales of industrial goods and business-related services is three to five times higher than the volume of consumer goods markets. This comparison makes the importance of the acquisition-related distribution policy and thus the sales process including personal sales in capital goods marketing clear. In other words: machines, industrial plants, aircraft, high-speed trains or balance sheet audits (services) cannot be marketed with the same means of communication as yogurt, washing powder or sweets via commercials in the mass media. That is why you need particularly qualified staff (salespeople) for acquisition-based distribution who (in addition to profound specialist knowledge) must have appropriate sales skills.

Development of diagnosis and prognosis of sales competence

The required competencies of the employees in sales (salespeople) are largely dependent on the industry and the organization of the respective company. Nevertheless, some similarities can be determined. From a historical perspective, various personality traits or traits such as extraversion, optimism and sociability were in the foreground until the mid-1990s. A study by Meyer and Greenberg from 1964 was particularly influential on the selection and qualification of salespeople. In a long-term study, the authors found that two factors are particularly important for sales success (measured by the contribution margin ): empathy and ego drive. Empathy means the ability to put yourself in the customer's position and emotions. This allows one to anticipate the behavior of the customer and influence it accordingly. The authors understand Ego Drive to mean the endeavor to see oneself and one's own achievements in the most positive light possible. It is essentially a combination of validity and achievement motives.

The core problem of such approaches is that one cannot draw conclusions from (unconscious) motives or feelings (which are usually not measurable) as well as from personality traits when selecting salespeople about their subsequent behavior with customers. In other words: such diagnostic systems have an extremely low prognostic validity. Numerous empirical studies have shown that personality tests and psychological interviews, for example, have a predictive validity that is ten times lower than that of an intelligence test. Although this is easy and inexpensive to handle, it only includes a small part of the skills of sales competence that are necessary to make the sales process efficient.

Another method has also not proven its worth. They are the so-called patent recipes or success stories of "experienced" practitioners from various more or less trivial advice books. On the one hand, such “surefire” recipes for success are based on individual experiences from the past, the truth of which cannot be verified. It is also known from brain research that after about a year half of the stored information is either forgotten and faded or (unconsciously) falsified. The reason: Both when experiencing and when storing and remembering past events, different situational emotions are involved, which influence the content of the memory. That is why Joseph LeDoux speaks of the Seven Sins of Memory.

Current approaches to developing sales skills

Because of these problems, newer concepts of diagnosis and development of sales skills are no longer based on (speculative) personality traits or motives, but on skills that are operationalized through the most precise possible descriptions of behavior. The essence of a competence can be defined as a combination of measurable and observable behavior, knowledge and results. A competence must also always be defined task-specifically and derived from the corporate goals.

An example of a behavior-related model of sales competence is provided by the empirical study by Christian Homburg and Michael Müller from the University of Mannheim. The authors questioned 56 sales managers, 195 sales employees and 538 private and business customers. In doing so, they found out that salespeople with above-average success (measured, among other things, by the contribution margin) are characterized by the fact that they have achieved particularly high values ​​for both customer-oriented and deal-oriented behavior. Examples of customer-oriented behavior are the appreciation of the customer, the focus on the satisfaction of customer needs with the primary goal of satisfying the customer. A particularly high level of customer orientation can lead to neglecting the conclusion orientation that the salesperson neglects the interests of his own company. The authors call these sellers "soft sellers". In contrast, salespeople who are particularly close to a deal are characterized by their focus on the company's economic interests; Their primary goal is to generate deals and orders with pressure on the customer. They are also called “hard sellers”, but just like the “soft sellers” they are not very successful. Only the combination of both behaviors leads to above-average success. The authors call these sellers “top sellers”.

Waldemar Pelz carried out another empirical study to determine key competences in sales that will be particularly important in the future (sales competence) at the Technical University of Central Hesse. 153 companies were surveyed (response). Of the respondents, around 31 percent were managing directors, 29 percent were HR managers, and 22 percent of those surveyed had various sales tasks. Around 60 percent of all respondents had disciplinary management responsibility for more than seven years. The result of the study: The competencies of customer orientation, which were defined analogously to the Homburg study, were rated by the respondents with an average of 6.42 (on a scale from 1 = “very unimportant” to 7 = “very important”). The sub-competencies are (1) appreciation of the customer, (2) needs-based performance presentation, (3) focus on customer interests, (4) systematic needs assessment and (5) constructive conflict behavior. The subsequent open question about further future-relevant competencies of customer orientation did not reveal any additional aspects worth mentioning. Thus, the competencies proposed by Homburg and Müller, which have been modified here somewhat, can be interpreted as not only effective for success, but also as relevant for the future.

Figure: The 12 most important sales skills of the future

Compared to the study by the University of Mannheim, in the study by the University of Applied Sciences Gießen, the competencies of the degree orientation were expanded by five implementation competencies or competencies of the Volition . It is about the ability to convert intentions, goals and knowledge into (measurable) results, i.e. to achieve results. The future importance of these competencies was rated by the respondents with an average of 5.74 (on a scale from 1 = "very unimportant" to 7 = "very important"). The sub-competencies of the implementation are: (1) goal-related self-discipline, (2) foresighted planning and problem solving, (3) self-confidence and assertiveness, (4) attention control and focus as well as (5) emotion and mood management. The sub-competencies of the Mannheim study such as 'building up pressure to finish' and 'preferring one's own interests' were rated as less important (5.28 and 3.86). In this case, too, the open question about further competencies (not included in the questionnaire) of the degree orientation did not yield any additional findings. The graphic on the right summarizes the most important results.

Conclusion: In the future, successful salespeople will need to have strong skills in customer orientation as well as conclusion orientation. The implementation skills are of particular importance with regard to the future. For all competencies and sub-competencies, (measurable) behavior and performance (and no longer personality traits, character traits or diffuse motives) are in the foreground, which make up the effective behavior of salespeople. According to the current state of knowledge, this is called sales competence. Then the selection and qualification of employees for tasks in sales should be oriented. Profound experience in sales, i.e. sales skills , are considered the most important prerequisite for professional development, for example in general management as part of executive development .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Diller: Vahlens Großes Marketinglexikon , Munich 2001
  2. ^ C. Homburg & H. Krohmer: Marketingmanagement , 3rd edition, Wiesbaden 2009
  3. ^ W. Pelz: Strategisches und Operatives Marketing , Norderstedt 2004, p. 6
  4. ^ D. Meyer and HM Greenberg: What makes a good salesman. In: Harvard Business Review , Vol. 42 (1964)
  5. ^ J. Menkes: Executive Intelligence , New York, 2005
  6. ↑ J. LeDoux: The network of personality , Munich 2002
  7. ↑ Hale, J .: Performance-Based Management: What Every Manager Should Do to Get Results , San Francisco 2004
  8. ↑ C. Homburg and M. Müller: Effective behavior of salespeople in customer contact , Mannheim 2009
  9. ^ W. Pelz: Future-relevant skills in the areas of sales and leadership. Giessen 2010 (PDF file; 261 kB)
  10. ↑ W. Pelz: Focusing instead of getting bogged down: Willpower and implementation skills are a good omen for professional success. In: Personal, Journal for Human Resource Management , issue 4/2010

Specialist literature

  • C. Belz: Sales Competence , 2nd edition, Vienna, 1999
  • H. Diller: Vahlens Großes Marketinglexikon , Munich 2001
  • J. Hale: Performance-Based Management: What Every Manager Should Do to Get Results , San Francisco 2004
  • C. Homburg and M. Müller: Effective behavior of salespeople in customer contact , Mannheim 2009
  • C. Homburg et al. a .: Sales Excellence , 4th edition, Wiesbaden 2006
  • MD Hutt & TW Speh: Business Marketing Management B2B , Cengage Learning: 2010
  • J. LeDoux: The Network of Personality , Munich 2002
  • J. Menkes: Executive Intelligence , New York, 2005
  • D. Meyer and HM Greenberg: What makes a good salesman. In: Harvard Business Review , Vol. 42 (1964)
  • W. Pelz: Sales skills, summary results of an empirical study by the University of Applied Sciences Gießen-Friedberg , Gießen 2010 ( PDF )
  • W. Pelz: Future-relevant skills in the areas of sales and management , presentation, Gießen 2010 ( PDF )