Introduction

A Strategic Roadmap for Sales Training and Development

With the publication of the whitepaper “Selling with Competence: How Sales Teams Succeed” in Spring 2008, ASTD, the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance, began to leverage its expertise and resources to improve people development and performance in sales organizations. Why? Because organizations around the world employ millions of people in the sales profession who create, sustain, and deliver results for their employers. CEOs and senior leaders know that they must have a long-term vision and build a world-class sales organization, but few understand exactly how to do so. ASTD research conducted in 2007 shows that much of the worldwide annual expenditure on sales training—estimated to be as much as $15 billion each year in the United States alone—is wasted. Sales training, in its current form, consists mostly of just-in-time, on-the-job skill development that does not address the root of sales team performance problems.

To build a world-class sales organization, companies must build a sales team with a solid understanding of the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities that drive sales results. With a solid foundation of individual competencies, developed and reinforced through education, training, and coaching, salespeople can deliver stellar business results for their companies and for themselves.

A Note About the Organization of This Book

This book has been written with three primary audiences in mind. To find the content that is most appropriate for your needs, look for the icon that best describes you. Sections with no icon apply to all three audiences.

Sales Trainer

As a sales trainer, you are experienced in training and development and identifying performance gaps to achieve business goals. You may have some work experience in the sales profession, or you may be strictly a workplace learning and performance professional. Whether you need some grounding in adult learning and competency model development, or a quick education on the evolution and methods of the sales profession, the majority of the book’s content will be relevant for you.

Sales Manager

As a sales manager, you have considerable experience in the sales profession. You are adept at managing people in pursuit of revenue goals. However, you may have little or no background in adult learning principles and competency model development and how these can be leveraged to improve performance. The sections of the book that explain the field of workplace learning and performance will be highly relevant for you and provide you with a solid understanding of how to leverage the ASTD World-Class Sales Competency Model.

Sales Executive

As a sales executive (for example, vice president of sales or chief sales officer), you have considerable experience in sales and business management. You may manage a number of sales teams and be responsible for setting strategy and generating results. You have overall authority for the performance of the sales team and view the sales process from a strategic perspective. The sections of the book that explain how to align the sales process with a competency framework and how to assess your organization’s readiness for change will be especially valuable for you.

Workplace Learning and Performance: A Primer

Workplace learning and performance (WLP) hinges on the belief that the performance of people is key to business success. WLP professionals strive to maximize the potential of people through training and development, talent management, and performance improvement so that their organizations can succeed in today’s global economy.

One of the basic building blocks of WLP is the idea of competence. Merriam-Webster defines competent as “having requisite or adequate ability or qualities.” Competency modeling is the formal practice of determining what it takes to be competent in a certain job, job family, or occupation, and then showing people how to get there. The research to determine this is called a “competency study,” and its end result is a “competency model.” A competency model often is represented in graphic form and depicts the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the job. Represented as a triangle or pyramid with three parts, the ASTD competency model shows how competencies—knowledge, skills, and abilities—are needed along with areas of expertise to perform certain roles in an organization.

[In today’s market,] training professionals will likely find their budgets receiving intense scrutiny. Concurrent with pressure to reduce costs is the requirement for companies to ensure their employees have the necessary skills, not only to compete effectively, but to ensure organizational survival. A critical way to both assess and build skills is through competency models.

—Marjorie Derven, “Lessons Learned: Using Competency Models to Target Training Needs,” T+D magazine, December 2008

The ASTD Approach to Competency Modeling

Why did we create the model the way we did?

A competency model can be developed in several ways. ASTD purposefully involved experts from around the world to ensure the model’s applicability in multinational organizations. ASTD also created a model that assumes an output-driven stance, which focuses attention on the outputs, or desired results, of the sales profession. Outputs are what successful performers produce or provide as a service to others. Because professional selling is results focused, the output-driven approach makes sense here.

The model also is designed to be occupation specific, which has several advantages for organizations:

• Competencies are defined in the occupation’s language.
• The model is descriptive of an entire occupation, not just a niche or a specialty.
• It incorporates expert input that is broadly representative.
• The results are easier to defend in court (Dubois and Rothwell, 2000).
• The model can be adapted or customized to specific organizational needs.

On the last point, there are several types of models that an organization can choose to use. Organizations can build a model from scratch, purchase an off-the-shelf model, or use a hybrid or customized model by tailoring a model that already exists. There are many rules of thumb to guide which approach is right for an organization. For more information, see The Competency Toolkit, by Dubois and Rothwell (2000), available from HRD Press.

The ASTD World-Class Sales Competency Model is the only widely available occupation-specific model for sales team members. It considers those who are directly responsible for revenue generation, as well as those who consult with, train, develop, and support them. Highly customizable to any kind of sales organization, the model provides structure while leaving room for unique characteristics or unusual requirements. The occupation-based model, focused intensely on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of all within the sales organization, embraces consultants as well as internal and external sales representatives at various levels of the organization. The model incorporates the basic tenets of workplace learning and performance and can be used by WLP professionals and those for whom sales training is only one part of a demanding job.

Methodology Overview

To create the ASTD World-Class Sales Competency Model, analysts began by conducting a thorough literature review. From there, the team moved to a validation process that ultimately produced the final model. Figure I-1 illustrates the development process used to create the model. A complete explanation of this process is included in Appendix D.

During phases 1 and 2, content was drawn from a review of previous ASTD studies, more than 100 academic and practitioner articles, existing publicly available occupation-specific competency models, expert input, and more than 120 subject matter experts (see Appendix F for a full list of the individuals who contributed to this study).

In phase 3, more than 2,000 people within the sales profession responded to a survey and rated the importance of the competencies, areas of expertise, and roles to their current jobs. All of the components that appear in the final model were considered moderately important to essential.

In this report, the authors have attempted to balance readability with scientific detail. Extensive details about the survey ratings, averages, and frequencies can be found in Appendix E. The executive summary covers the high-level findings and trends.

The ASTD World-Class Sales Competency Model

Sales training and development professionals focus on providing dramatic results through

• improving salesperson performance
• balancing individual and organizational needs
• building knowledge within the organization
• maximizing return on the company’s investments.

A competency-based approach applied to the sales organization can provide a firm foundation for the processes and activities needed for training and development. With such an approach, development efforts aimed at helping salespeople gain basic sales skills, technology skills, or management skills are relevant and immediately applicable.

Salespeople must continually develop new skills to contribute to the growth of their companies. The only way for companies to grow and compete in a rapidly changing global business environment is to have a skilled sales team that is innovative, understands the economic landscape and marketplace, and is driven to excel within its industry. This requires the right people, with the right skills, at the right time. The tools and systems created by a competency-based approach to sales team development can help organizations maximize the potential of their sales force.

The Purpose of This Report

This report is intended to

• provide clarity to the discussion and definition of “world-class selling”
• identify trends and drivers with the greatest impact on the current and future practices of sales training and development
• describe a competency model that is comprehensive, prescriptive, forward thinking, and actionable
• provide a foundation for a competency-based approach to selling on an organizational as well as an individual level.

By clearly defining the roles, competencies, and areas of expertise that salespeople need to succeed, ASTD is confident that the findings in this report will support those interested in increasing the performance of their sales teams and, ultimately, delivering results to the organization.

What You Will Find in This Report

The main body of this report has seven chapters. Chapter 1 discusses important trends facing the sales profession in the coming years. Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of the evolution of the selling profession and explains the importance of aligning the competency model and sales processes for maximum performance. A high-level description of the ASTD World-Class Sales Competency Model composes chapter 3. Chapters 4 through 6 examine the model components—roles, areas of expertise, and competencies—drilling down to provide a complete explanation of each. Chapter 7 includes a call to action for implementing a competency-based approach to selling and underscores the importance of assessing organizational readiness for change.

The report also includes six appendixes, including the competency model dictionary (Appendix A), a selection of assessment tools (Appendix B), a history of the ASTD competency models (Appendix C), the research methodology (Appendix D), and the research summary and statistics (Appendix E). Appendix F contains a listing of individuals and organizations—including ASTD’s local chapters in the United States—that contributed to the study. The six appendixes are followed by a glossary, references, and an index.