Gone are the days when a salesperson was simply responsible for closing deals. Instead, specialized sales roles have emerged, each with unique responsibilities and objectives.
Dr. Bryan Hochstein, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama, shared his insights on these specialized sales roles and how educators can best prepare their students to compete effectively in the job market in his Stukent® Digital Summit: Professional Selling session. Read on for a recap of his insights!
Understanding the Sales Landscape
Traditionally, sales roles were often perceived as full-cycle sales positions, where a salesperson would be responsible for every aspect of the sales process, from generating leads to closing deals. However, as Bryan pointed out, this traditional model no longer captures the entirety of sales careers.
In the webinar, Bryan launched a poll where he asked the audience whether they believed sales roles were performed by full-cycle salespeople, hunters, farmers, or something else. Most respondents indicated they were teaching something other than the traditional full-cycle sales approach. This highlights the evolving nature of sales roles.
Bryan emphasized the importance of understanding the sales process, which, in essence, involves various steps, from understanding the customer to approaching them, ultimately leading to a potential sale. While not all sales processes follow the same linear sequence, they share common steps. Drawing from his extensive experience at Time Warner, Bryan mentioned that he personally handled all these steps during his tenure.
Today, however, many companies must reevaluate how they approach these steps due to their complexity. As a result, specialized sales roles have become more prevalent. “Sales roles are diverse and multifaceted, each requiring distinct skills and responsibilities,” Bryan said. These technical roles focus on specific aspects of the sales process, aligning with their unique goals and responsibilities.
The Diversity of Sales Roles
An array of specialized roles require distinct skill sets and personalities. While many educational programs cover the basics of sales, there is room to delve deeper into the diversity of sales roles.
Some of these specialized roles include:
Business Development Representatives (BDRs): These professionals focus on understanding customers, conducting background research, and scheduling meetings with potential clients.
Customer Success Managers (CSMs): CSMs are not primarily engaged in direct sales but focus on helping customers get the most value from their purchased products or services. They prioritize long-term relationships, retention, and growth.
Retention and Growth Sales: These roles, often carried out by account managers, work alongside CSMs, aiming to close new sales and seize growth opportunities with existing clients.
Inbound Marketing and Demand Generation: Although not strictly sales roles, these positions are crucial to attracting leads and filling the sales funnel.
Sales Support and Operations: Teams specialize in sales enablement, operations, and support to help streamline sales activities and enhance efficiency.
Sales Analysts: In today’s data-driven world, sales analysts play a pivotal role in interpreting data to optimize sales strategies.
Solution Engineers and Sales Engineers: These roles bridge the gap between technical aspects and sales, often in industries with complex products.
By introducing students to these specialized sales roles, educators can provide a comprehensive understanding of the evolving sales landscape and help students identify their areas of interest and potential career paths.
Preparing Students for Specialized Sales Roles
Sales education often begins with an introductory course that covers the basics of the sales process. In foundational classes, students learn about essential concepts such as prospecting, needs analysis, negotiation, and closing deals. These fundamental skills form the basis of a successful sales career and provide students with a strong starting point.
For students seeking more profound knowledge of sales, advanced courses can provide insights into specialized sales roles and strategies. These courses delve into the intricacies of BDR roles, customer success management, account management, and more. They equip students with the expertise required to excel in specific sales positions, making them highly competitive in the job market.
Course materials focusing on modern sales strategies can provide students with relevant, up-to-date information. These resources cover various sales topics and the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. By incorporating such materials into their curriculum, educators ensure that students are well-prepared for the dynamic sales landscape they will encounter in their careers.
Role-playing and real-world scenarios are also invaluable tools for developing students’ practical sales skills. These exercises allow students to apply their knowledge in simulated sales situations, helping them become comfortable with the challenges and uncertainties of fundamental sales interactions. Effective role-plays emphasize the importance of human skills, communication, and adaptability in sales.
Stukent’s Professional Selling Simternship™ immerses students in the role of a business development representative at DataLocker, a data management software solution. This hands-on experience prepares students to analyze data, select value propositions for potential customers, and assist coworkers with sales-related tasks. Students also practice customer interactions with product pitch scripts and two real-time discovery calls.
“We want students to hit the ground running when they get their first job,” B.J. Allen said in a webinar as an award-winning professor of marketing at Brigham Young University and coauthor of the “Professional Selling” courseware. “We want them to learn things they’re going to do their very first week … our goal was to shrink the onboarding process by about three months.”
The Professional Selling Simternship and courseware emphasize developing customer relationship skills, as we recognize their importance in the modern business world. Through interactive exercises and real-world scenarios, students are encouraged to apply and refine these skills, preparing them for success in their future careers.
As online education grows, the interest in online professional selling courses will, too. Stukent has developed two selling bundles, including the Advanced Selling Bundle, which takes students beyond basic selling techniques, strategies, and psychology, helping them build valuable skills they can apply to careers in sales and marketing.
Educators should also emphasize the significance of data and analytics in sales. While students may not all become data analysts, they should be able to use data-driven insights to make informed decisions, track performance, and identify areas for improvement. Understanding key sales metrics and analytics tools equips students to thrive in a data-centric sales environment.
By providing a well-rounded education that covers fundamental sales processes, specialized roles, technology, management skills, and workplace well-being, educators can equip their students with the tools they need to thrive in today’s diverse and ever-changing sales landscape.
Stukent is here to help educators help students help the world. To learn more about our first-in-the-world Simternships and courseware, or to get FREE instructor access to our products, visit us online.
