Current and future competitiveness requires the creation of a source of sustainable competitive differentiation. Today, traditional sources of differentiation (brand, technology, economies of scale) are unsustainable. We believe that in the long run, sales effectiveness is a critical source of sustainable competitive advantage and differentiation.

Making your sales force a source of competitive advantage requires more than training salespeople on new sales techniques. At Wilson Learning, we recognise the central role of both salespeople and sales leadership to sales effectiveness. Providing salespeople and sales leaders with the right skills, tools, and processes can propel your organisation forward, allowing you to out-perform the competition and delivering greater value to your customers.

Historically, salespeople served a single role: vendor, persuader, or counsellor. At Wilson Learning, our research has shown that to be a source of competitive advantage, salespeople need to fulfil two roles. They have to be both Consultants to their clients and Strategists to their own organisation.

The salesperson as Consultant advances the customer’s company by becoming an expert in that business and industry, in addition to his or her own business. The salesperson as Strategist advances the selling organisation by doing profitable business while outperforming the competition.

To serve as Consultants and Strategists, salespeople also need Personal and Technical Effectiveness skills. Personal Effectiveness is the individual capacity for self-development, innovation, and relationship skills. Technical Effectiveness is product-specific knowledge about characteristics and applications, combined with business acumen. While these skills are critical, and at one time were sufficient for effective sales performance, their primary role is to help make the salesperson a more effective business Consultant and Strategist.

For more information on the programs offered in this area please browse our extensive "Course Catalogue".