{{B}}KNOWING THE CUSTOMERS{{/B}}
When correlated with the salespeople's actual performance, the differences in their knowledge of their customers emerged as the primary characteristic of superior sales performance. More specifically, the researchers uncovered five key areas where the best salespeople excelled.
First, the top salespeople were able to provide much richer descriptions of each type of customers. They gave better identifying characteristics, provided more detailed information, and had a better understanding of each customer's unique needs. {{U}}(8) {{/U}}
Second, the better salespeople tended to categorize their customers based on the latter's buying needs, rather than categorizing them with more superficial identifiers like the customer's appearance or demographics. {{U}}(9) {{/U}}
Third, {{U}}(10) {{/U}} That is, they were able to look at several different customer interactions, identify common behaviors or traits, and apply those observations to similar types of customers.
Fourth, the top salespeople had a greater number of discrete selling steps in their own sales processes. Where a low performer may have executed only a few selling tasks during each sale, the high performers saw the need for many more activities to successfully close the deal. {{U}}(11) {{/U}}
Finally, and perhaps most disturbingly, the best salespeople had abandoned a greater amount of their previous sales training than their less successful peers. {{U}}(12) {{/U}}
A the more effective salespeople were better at "abstraction" than their lower-performing peers.
B One can infer the extra selling steps were in response to the actual buying needs of their customers.
C Basically, the best salespeople knew more about their customers than their lower-performing colleagues.
D More specifically, the researchers uncovered five key areas where the best salespeople excelled.
E So in addition to their ability to more fully describe their customers, the best salespeople also gave descriptions largely derived from their customers' perspective--not their own.
F They had developed their own approaches to selling more closely aligned with their customers' needs.
G In contrast, the less successful salespeople were dutifully doing more of what they had been instructed to do, but they were getting less in return.