KNOWLEDGE CENTER

Research

Having benchmarked 1000 UK salespeople over a two-year period, Silent Edge, the UK sales performance authority, has new research which demonstrates that – for all their admirable skills and qualities – UK salespeople under perform when it comes to actually selling.

Their research has shown UK salespeople look good, have great personalities, establish a strong rapport with prospects and have a sound knowledge of the products and services they are offering.  In the Silent Edge study they scored above 80% for each of the following metrics:-

•  Personal presentation                             96%

• Rapport with prospect                             94%

• Company offerings                                  83%

•  Product/Service knowledge                    86%

However, salespeople are far weaker when it comes to the skills which actually constitute ‘making the sale’, scoring less than 40%:

• Closing skills                                             46%

• Differentiation from the competition          31%

• Objection-handling capability                    30%

• Negotiation skills                                       16%

• Articulating the Value Proposition            15%

Click here to download June 2006 benchmarking report.