Not necessarily. In my work with sales organizations across the U.S., clients have found that while top sales professionals are doing a lot of things right, there’s virtually always opportunity for improvement.

Think about the impact a boost for the best could have. If your top sales people could deliver 10 percent more to the bottom line, the incremental dollars could be much bigger than the combined total of three, five or even ten lower-level salespeople.  

In developing custom programs with clients, I’ve found that the strengths of the top sales executives are generally robust product knowledge and a large base of clients and prospects. Experience and a well-developed Rolodex have taken them a long way. So where’s the room for improvement?

One of my clients asked each salesperson to make a product presentation to a small group of the company’s corporate executives. The results were startling.  The communications skills of the best performers were often not markedly better than lower performing colleagues. This client realized if they could super-charge their best, the impact would be immediate and impressive. Post-training presentations showed remarkable improvement with a mesurable increase in sales. That’s not just the opinion of participants; it’s a measure in significant sales growth.  

Now multiply the effect. How? The salespeople we worked with are now more effective mentors to the people they supervise. Their new leadership skills in teaching, inspiring and reinforcing more successful communications have created a pyramid of higher sales performance.   

How can you invoke the 10 percent rule in your own organization? Here are some tips:

• Don’t change your sales process – just develop better ways to execute it.  Recognize the success of what’s working. The goal is incremental improvement by developing better ways of communicating within the existing process.  
• Ask a better question – get a better answer. Listening–really listening–to customers opens up a world of opportunity. Ask questions that touch on pain points. Then be prepared to shape your response to address that need. Ask, listen, then respond.  
• Consider the emotional elements of the sale. Humans are emotional creatures. For example, in finance, they may be preoccupied with security issues or the need to hit a monetary goal.  In manufacturing, it may be low productivity or excessive maintenance costs. In professional services, the need for image and expertise is always paramount. A single story, analogy, or example can touch the heart, distilling an entire message into a more memorable picture than pages of data can.  
• Organize information for powerful interactions. Whether it’s in your computer, card file or personal memory, have information organized for easy reference. Maybe it’s by industry, or competition, or some other factor. Quickly review it before a meeting or call. When you have accurate information and appropriate stories at your fingertips, you’re ready for a 10 percent more successful interaction.
• Learn to sell in all market conditions.  You can’t control the economy, but you can adapt to it if you’re ready to meet people where they are. In a tough or down market? Be prepared to respond to anger and frustration with new ideas or ways of looking at their businesses. Consider ways to bundle products or add on a low-cost service that creates an advantage.  Remember that service, convenience, trust, and peace of mind count for a lot.  

In my experience, the top performers often gain the most because they have the strongest foundation. As role models and mentors they strengthen the rest of the team. And the bottom line results are the proof.

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Businesses grow best when their leaders are growing right along with them. Leaders who communicate their ideas and present themselves in powerful ways realize the best results. The following “Ten Tips to Executive Presence” are based on the skills we teach our clients. We encourage you to put our tips into practice and, not only develop your executive presence, but grow your business.

1. Focus on your audience. Ask yourself, “What can I do to make their lives better – more efficient, more effective and more enjoyable!” Remember, your audience does not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
2. Multi-tasking is for tasks, not communication. Although you may be able to juggle many tasks at once, the people you are building relationships with deserve your full attention in every interaction. When you give people your full attention, you are saying, “I see you, I hear you, and you are important to me.” It will increase your power of influence ten fold.
3. Balance your logic with emotion. Although facts are expected in the business world, your biggest influencing tools will be stories and examples. It is through the use of these powerful influencers that you will ensure a strong emotional connection with your audience – a connection strong enough to take your audience to action.
4. Make certain your pictures match. Take time to provide the picture painting details your audience needs to “see what it is you want them to see.” When you do this, you minimize the risk of misunderstanding and the “fallout” that often occurs as a result.
5. Rely on expression to help you paint the picture for your audience. Use your face, voice and body language to show your audience “how high is high”, “how big is big” and “how much is too much.”
6. Rely on the strength of your voice to command the attention of your audience. When your voice is strong and resonant, you are communicating strength, personal power, authority, and confidence to your audience. All are attributes of true leaders.
7. Carry yourself in a manner that says “I am comfortable with myself, with my topic and with my audience.” When your posture is easy and relaxed – informal yet professional, your audience will not only feel more relaxed in your presence, but you will be more approachable.
8. Use the power of your breath to keep you in the moment, easy, and relaxed. Oxygen is nature’s greatest tranquilizer, and believe it or not, it is also nature’s greatest energizer. So, use that same breath to energize your voice.
9. Be concise. State your point, explain your reason why, back it up with evidence, restate your point, and talk about what needs to happen next. Remember, one of the most valuable resources (and the most scarce) is time. So, boost your credibility by honoring your audience by respecting their time.
10. Be genuine . . . be real . . . be YOU! When you are yourself, you not only honor your audience, but even more important you honor yourself.

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Every day I am more aware of the pressure to improve the economies of scale within our firms, divisions, or departments, leading us to think of more creative ways of doing “more with less.” However, simply asking our people to do more is becoming less and less of an option, in light of the already seam-bursting workloads that most are carrying.

One area that surfaces as a treasure-trove of possibilities is our technical staffs. Technical experts, be they IT, financial or engineering, must now be in direct contact with clients and customers, often at the client site. Having worked in the IT industry for 15 years, I am aware that these interactions can be challenging – left-brainers are great at solving technical problems but may not be so great at communicating. I can only begin to imagine what might be possible if these technical experts were also capable communicators, acting as pre-sales agents, sales scouts, or as a sales triage.

From where I sit, the value added to our organizations would be tremendous, if the technical experts had the confidence and skill to engage with department managers, directors, or even VP level management. I picture technical staffs engaging with senior level managers as trusted advisers, able to describe unrealized issues or opportunities, and propose possible solutions. Or acting as a catalyst to bring the right people within our organizations together to discuss and resolve the issues that only they are aware of. By expanding the skill sets of our technical staffs, our organizations can expand their sales footprint without adding to the headcount of the organization.

Some areas of focus for our technical experts could be:

1. Be aware of the audience’s level of expertise. Not everyone knows what you know. So, guide the rest of us to your level of knowledge.
2. Use language that your audience understands and can relate to instead of technical jargon that causes people to tune out.
3. Recognize that your audience might have discomfort with your knowledge/expertise, and therefore hesitate to approach you with questions. So, smile, be freindly and approachable.
4. Relate your information to your audience’s world using examples and stories, don’t drone on and on with facts and statistics.
5. Accept that questions don’t mean challenges – the audience is just trying to understand your message.

I am not suggesting that our technical experts fill the role of sales people. However, I am suggesting that with increased communication skills and confidence they could help our clients identify and solve problems. They would be highly valued by the client, and broaden the reach of our organization’s sales presence through effective communication – identifying and facilitating opportunities for the sales team. 

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