What if the sales profession was subject to the kind of structured and public ratings used for financial institutions worldwide? Ratings agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s evaluate the risk associated with lending money to companies and government agencies. The risks and rewards of customers engaging you, the sales professional, are completely different, but extremely significant to their future and your own. How would you fare in a SP Rating (Sales Professional Rating)?
Value Contribution
- Track record for success on behalf of clients
- Consistently brings new and valuable ideas
- Problem solving ability
- Business consultant role
- Put customer’s best interest first
- Bottom line contribution
Professionalism
- Dependability – consistently do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it.
- Appearance
- Behavior/etiquette
Administrative Function
- Ease of doing business
- Efficient billing, reporting, etc.
- Hassle-free processes
The ultimate indication of your SP customer rating is whether or not decision makers at any given client organization choose to do business with you; however, even that measure can be deceiving. We all can think of sales professional – customer relationships in which the customer buys from the sales rep in spite of that individual, not because of him/her; and alternately, situations in which customers buy more because of the sale rep they adore than the products/services they could live without.
Think about the dynamic you bring to the purchase relationship with your customers. To what degree are you personally a positive factor in their decision? Assessing your performance in each of the specific areas above would be a good start to ensuring you are maximizing your (positive) impact in each and every purchase decision.
