Competency models and assessment - Where do we start?

We have been promising for a while that we would start to look at a subject dear to our hearts, competency and assessment. Rather than immediately going into one of our normal tirades over what people are doing wrong, we wanted to start with some definitions and to get some feedback, either via the blog or directly.

Let's start with what a competency model is and why we might need it?
Here are some definitions that Fred and I hear when we are talking to clients, we would be interested in your thoughts.

1. A definition of the attributes we want our sales people to have
2. A combination of the attributes and knowledge we expect our people to have to be successful as sales people
3. A set of attributes, knowledge and skills that we are looking for in our people
4. A definition of what a world class sales person looks like
5. A definition of what we expect our people to do in their role, what they need to know and how they need to behave to successfully fulfil their role
6. A set of people skills we can measure

The above are all definitions we have been given by both prospects and existing clients. Once we have heard what they think they are looking for in a competency model, we then ask them what they want to do with it?

1. Use it for recruitment
2. Use it to identify "high flyers"
3. Use it to identify "people in the wrong job"
4. Create a definition of what good looks like
5. To create a "world class" sales organisation
6. Because our competition is doing it

Of course it is really important to find out who the competency model is for, i.e. what are you going to do with the results?

1. For HR to benchmark people
2. For Learning & Development to see what training is required
3. For Learning & Development to validate the effectiveness of training
4. For the Sales Director to see what their team looks like
5. For the individual sales people to understand what they need to look like to be better at their job.

We would like to know what you would want from a competency model?

Rather than immediately tell you what we think, we would like to hear from you. How will a competency model help you? If you are a sales manager, a sales rep, or a sales director, we would like to understand what value you would like to gain from being assessed against a competency model.

We do not want anything complicated, just the answer to 3 questions

1. What would you like a competency model to tell you
2. How would you like to be measured against the model
3. What would you like to do with the information.

As we are only talking to sales people we know you will want something in return.

We will put the names of all those who respond into a "virtual hat" and then provide them and up to 8 colleagues with a free assessment and coaching on their approach to selling.

Send us your responses now!

Either add a comment to the blog and share it with others, or send us your thoughtsdirectly  by email to either mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com or fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com. 

Next week we will look at how you create an effective competency model

Why do people buy?

Been a hectic couple of weeks so sorry there has been no blog from Mark or me since early September. At the end of our last blog, we promised to write a blog on Competency Models. Well that is going to have to wait at least one more week because this week we wanted to talk about some fundamentals of selling and buying.

Pretty simple question this week - "Why do people buy?"

There are a couple of threads at present on some of the LinkedIn groups about salespeople needing to understand their own business and that of their clients really well if they are to be successful. Of course we agree - if you do not understand your own business, your portfolio, your key metrics and if you do not find out that information about your clients then you will struggle to convince people to buy from you.

But let's go back to the very simple question of "Why do people buy?"

Our view is as simple as the question. People buy for their own reasons - it is that simple. People buy to be better off as a result of making the decision to buy something. In a B2B world it may seem that your customer buys your product to solve a problem and of course that is true - to an extent. What is certain is that the decision maker will have more than just logical, business reasons for buying from you. There will be all of the emotional reasons tied up in the decision too. These are "their own reasons".

So what are "their own reasons' and how do you get to understand them?

Well guess what - we are back to one of our favourite subjects - you get to understand "their own reasons' by asking great questions and really listening to the responses. By the way I saw a great line last week which read "Listening is not the same as Waiting to Talk".

So listening, really deeply listening will uncover "their own reasons".

So when a CFO says to you "I may buy from you if you can save me some money" that sounds like an obvious thing to say for a CFO doesn't it? But if you can get deeply into his/her personal needs for saving money (looking good in front of the boss, saving our business from disaster, not repeating that mistake I made last year, earning my bonus by saving the business £s, etc, etc) then you are truly getting to "their own reasons"

So bearing in mind all buying decisions are emotional and for the personal reasons of the buyer we want to remind you of some basics:

1. Always ask questions that get you closer to the real, emotional, personal reasons for wanting to solve a business problem
2. Talk about the benefits to the customer of buying your products.
3. Do not talk about your products.
4. Ensure that your client is emotionally better off by buying your product
5. Listen intently to uncover the real "hot button" emotional reason for wanting to solve a particular business problem that can be addressed through the benefits your product brings

As always we are interested in your views so please post a comment

Do you want to know more?

Either read our Helping business drive sales document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help you create and manage your solution assessments enabling you to ensure your sales organisation is maximising the opportunities your portfolio creates.