Let's talk about the status of the sales professional?

Whether you hear the words manager, consultant, business developer or commercial, you have a sales profile. Many people underestimate their importance, forgetting that in companies, whatever the area, there is either debt or sales - and everything that is not sales is either costs or debt. Therefore, salespeople are fundamental to develop business.

It is important to raise the status of the salesperson and direct the focus on training talent. Even because indicators such as those published by the Sales Education Foundation in the United States, point out that in Portugal, as in the USA, 50% of graduates, regardless of the course they choose, have their first profession in the commercial area. This amorphous mass is playing a role often without any kind of experience or disposition, even because training in universities in the sales area is still scarce or not very innovative.

Consequently, the commercial area is one of those with the highest turnover within any company and the disruption that these contract ruptures represent for companies is significant, because it often takes 3 months to a year to train each employee and hope that this person, at least, makes the break-even of how much their training costs the organisation and what it effectively brings to the company.

On top of this, sales remains one of the only professional sectors of activity that has no professional representation whatsoever. There is no salesmen's association, which protects the interests of these workers or gives a more "serious" status to the activity.

The key to raising the status of sales professionals is higher education, but not only that. To do so, it is necessary to understand what sales is today and transition to a logic of selling value rather than product.

Sales are intended to be highly sophisticated value and customer centric and anchored in integrity. The goal is to help the customer win. If we look at the most sophisticated and competitive markets, sales people are completely committed to excellence and never stop being resilient and curious. A professional in this area must have soft skills linked to excellence, such as emotional intelligence, empathy, rapport and critical judgment, in addition to hard skills such as prospecting, questioning, closing, presentation and negotiation.

This should be the new profile of the sales professional, not the old paradigm full of stigma. Are you ready to change the sales sector in your company?