The Will to Sell Factors: 5 Critical Sales Competencies

We talk to salespeople every day who tell us they want to achieve more, they are going to change their ways, and the results will follow.  If only it were that easy.

The Objective Management Group, an organization that has evaluated over 2 million salespeople, have identified the 21 sales competencies that are crucial to success for salespeople.  There are 10 Selling Competencies(skills), 6 DNA traits (behavior), and finally 5 that fall under the category of “Will to Sell”.

Of course, they are all important but today I want to tell you why I believe that the Will to Sell competencies are the most important of all, and without them success will be much harder.

Desire – desire measures how badly you want to achieve greater success in sales, in other words do you “really” want it?

Commitment – the willingness to do whatever it takes (assuming ethical conduct) to achieve your success.  Commitment is not conditional; you are either in or you are out.

Motivation – there are two parts to motivation:

1. Are you motivated?
2. How are you motivated?

Knowing the power behind your motivation helps you plow through behaviors when you get stuck.

Outlook – how do you feel about yourself, the company you work for, the people you work with, and finally the people you call on.  When any of these are out of alignment, we struggle to do the behaviors we know we need to execute to succeed.

Responsibility – do you take responsibility when you don’t get the results you want, or do you make excuses?

Of course, all 21 sales competencies are important but when you have a strong Will to Sell then you are coachable, and able to understand what behaviors need to change (DNA), and possess the desire, commitment, and motivation to change.  The same thing is true for the selling competencies, these are learned behaviors.  Without them it is a tough road.

As the saying goes where there is a will (to sell) there is a way!