{"id":979,"date":"2007-06-05T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2007-06-05T17:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/focus-on-a-salespersons-strengths\/"},"modified":"2007-06-05T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2007-06-05T17:59:13","slug":"focus-on-a-salespersons-strengths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/focus-on-a-salespersons-strengths\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus On A Salesperson&#8217;s Strengths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Great article from SellingPower.com titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sellingpower.com\/html_newsletter\/article.asp?NLid=1&amp;Layout_ID=645&amp;ARTid=2945&amp;nDate=June+4%2C+2007\" target=\"_blank\">Don&#8217;t Fix Weaknesses; Build Strengths<\/a> that discusses salesperson development.&nbsp; The core tenet of this article is to focus on building strengths and not in transforming weaknesses into strengths (it won&#8217;t happen).&nbsp; The entire article is worth the read, but this is the pull quote for me (my emphasis):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In fact, while talent will get you to a certain point, developing and strengthening that talent is what brings the greatest success. Consider this experiment, conducted by the University of Nebraska some years back. To study the effectiveness of its speed-reading courses, the school evaluated students\u20ac\u2122 natural reading pace and placed them in one of two groups \u20ac\u201c naturally fast readers and naturally slow readers. After the course, students were re-evaluated. The slow group improved from reading an average of 90 words per minute (wpm) to 150 wpm, a 67 percent increase. But the fast readers skyrocketed from an average of 350 wpm to more than 2,900 wpm, a 728 percent increase! The principle applies across the board to talent \u20ac\u201c <strong>when you work on areas in which someone has no natural ability, the improvement will be modest. But when you focus attention on building natural skills, the results will be off the charts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Absolutely spot on.&nbsp; The best approach is to refine talents into skills &#8211; in sales, that leads to top-level performance.&nbsp; The key to reaching this level is to <em>only<\/em> focus on neutralizing weaknesses.&nbsp; As you will read in the article, many managers hope to make salespeople strong in their weak areas.&nbsp; Strike that thought from your mind!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great article from SellingPower.com titled Don&#8217;t Fix Weaknesses; Build Strengths that discusses salesperson development.&nbsp; The core tenet of this article is to focus on building strengths and not in transforming weaknesses into strengths (it won&#8217;t happen).&nbsp; The entire article is worth the read, but this is the pull quote for me (my emphasis): In fact, while talent will get you to a certain point, developing and strengthening that talent is what brings the greatest success. Consider this experiment, conducted by the University of Nebraska some years back. To study the effectiveness of its speed-reading courses, the school evaluated students\u20ac\u2122 natural reading pace and placed them in one of two groups&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/focus-on-a-salespersons-strengths\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessing","category-sales-management"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-fN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/more-on-leaders\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":0},"title":"More on Leaders","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I was worried that title was going to be \"Moron Leaders.\" Deeper article here from Selling Power that provides The Nine \"P\"s of Great Leadership. This comprehensive article is a quick read with much usable data. I particularly like their take on character as opposed to the article in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1121,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/08\/sales-traits-series-developing-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":1},"title":"Sales Traits Series &#8211; Developing Others","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This week we focus on a critical sales management trait. We often encounter sales managers who attempt to sell first, manage later. This approach may pay short-term dividends, but the long-term effect is an underdeveloped sales team. We always look at this measurement when hiring sales managers. Developing Others The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Aptitudes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Aptitudes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/aptitudes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1086,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/07\/top-4-suggestions-for-new-sales-managers\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":2},"title":"Top 4 Suggestions For New Sales Managers","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"SMT (Sales & Marketing Training) has an article in its recent newsletter that surveyed its members for advice they would give to new sales managers.\u00a0 The author has provided the top 4 pieces of advice: Assessing talent is a first step Coaching the \u20ac\u0153coachable\u20ac\u009d spending appropriate time on those individuals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1435,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/the-cost-of-underperforming-salespeople\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":3},"title":"The Cost Of Underperforming Salespeople","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an interesting little article I stumbled across this morning from Seacoastonline.com titled Get the most out of your sales team.\u00a0 The premise is simple and accurate - nonproductive salespeople are the bane of any small (or large) business. A nonproductive sales team is among the top common dangers that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":977,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/the-path-to-sales-improvement\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":4},"title":"The Path To Sales Improvement","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When you boil it down to the basics, sales departments are measured by profit increases. Simple, yes, but that is the crux of the goal. Operational efficiencies are part of the equation, but the focus here is on increasing profits via increased revenue. So how do companies go about achieving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/windowslivewriterthepathtosalesimprovement-73cdpath-bridge6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":659,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/sales-management-primer\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":5},"title":"Sales Management Primer","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Selling Power is covering topics near to our hearts this Valentine's Day. A Primer for New Pharmaceutical Sales Managers discusses some of the challenges facing new sales managers and provides 5 key tips. Obviously the context is the pharmaceutical industry, but these challenges are consistent throughout industries. I couldn't agree\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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