In a recent conversation with several sales professionals, I referenced an old cartoon called Hagar the Horrible. In the cartoon, Hagar spent the entire year rolling a giant rock to the top of a mountain. After the task was finally completed, he went to bed satisfied only to awake the next morning with the rock back at his front door. My point was B2B selling is a little like rolling a rock as well. Over the Christmas Holiday, we celebrate the sales successes of the year only to find a new “rock” at our front door on January 1st.One of the most challenging elements of pushing the “sales rock” up the mountain in 2011 is that the game has changed. What were once differentiators for your company are quickly becoming “me too for less” options being offered up by the competition. It is getting harder to stand out from the crowd, and the requirements to win as a sales professional in today’s economy require greater selling skills than ever before. Building great business relationships is still as important as always, but today’s competitive environment requires more than just great business relationships. Increased sales will only be realized when you combine great business relationships with great functional selling skills such as active listening, understanding customer needs at a deeper level, and being able to articulate how your company’s value proposition aligns with those explicit needs.

‍Carew International, one of the leading sales training companies, realizes that there is no better time to brush up on your sales techniques than early in the year. One of our award winning sales training courses, Dimensions of Professional Selling, equips sales professionals with the cutting edge sales techniques required to thrive in the “New Economy.” The program is being offered in an open enrollment format in Cincinnati, Ohio from February the 22nd through February the 25th. Signing up is as easy as clicking on the DPS link to reserve a spot.

Ken Blanchard refers to sales training as “sharpening the saw,” and as sales professionals a sharp saw is a competitive advantage. There is a direct connection between great sales skills and increased sales results. As our buddy Hagar learned, there is always going to be a new rock to be pushed up the hill, and there is no time like the present to gain a little more “selling muscle” to help with the effort.