The Defining Skill in Selling

Tim Welch joined the Won-Door Corporation as an estimator in 1979 shortly following graduation from BYU with a BS in Business Management. He became National Sales Manager in 1982, Vice President of Sales in 1985, a member of the Board of Directors in 1999 and a minority partner in 2008

Tim is a successful sales executive that has been in the trenches since 1979 shortly after graduating from college. He has published numerous articles on construction-related selling and co-authored McGraw Hill’s Complete Guide to Architectural Selling.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have a natural ability to produce stunning revenue totals and other, seemingly talented people struggle to come within a solar-system of their annual sales goal? Is it possible that what seems to be natural ability is really a transferable skill that could transform your professional life? My answer to both questions is a definite yes.

Most of us who lead sales teams can become overly enamored with the products we represent. We spend much of our lives sizing up our competitors and developing strategies to clearly differentiate how our products uniquely solve pressing customer problems. Sometimes this obsession with understanding how products work keeps us from focusing on how people work. Knowing how products work is essential; understanding how people work can change the landscape of virtually any business venture.

Personal Leadership is a learned skill that produces maximum results-the highest possible revenue totals-in the world of professional selling. When you are working at a level consistent with your potential revenue numbers almost always become a secondary issue. Personal leadership is entirely about bringing your performance in alignment with your potential.

If you have been selling for any length of time you know that certain attitudes, behaviors or beliefs can disrupt the selling process. They can emerge out of nowhere and morph rapidly into a type of numbing paralysis that can seriously compromise your effectiveness to work with customers and grow your business. Before the new sales model is introduced I will discuss eight common symptoms of “Sales Paralysis” that sidetrack careers and disenfranchise customers. With the common ground of these symptoms on your mind it will make it easier to understand how this new sales model will literally catapult you to your greatest potential as a sales professional.

The Defining Skill in Selling is really about helping you improve personal productivity and work at a level consistent with your potential. My guess is there will be very little about the material in this book that will startle you. Assuming you have spent a significant amount of time in the profession of selling, most of the skills and certainly the emphasis on Personal Leadership will have an air of familiarity. They are things you have thought of or are already implementing in your territory. Most likely it will be the bundling together of all of these various components in a new model for selling that will be new to you. My hope is that all elements of this new model will simply make practical sense.