2. Establish standards of excellence Identify gaps in performance Build foundation for a learning organization Measure ongoing improvement Why Build a Competency Framework
3. Competency Categories Consider the areas of competency your sales people need: Personal Competencies Business Competencies Sales Competencies
If your organization works in a highly competitive market, you need to ensure that your sales professionals have the necessary competencies to effectively compete and win. A good way to ensure that these professionals have what it takes, is to establish a competency framework that will establish what “excellent” looks like. The behaviors (skills) and knowledge that are needed to be successful are well documented within the competency framework and each individual can clearly see what is expected of them.Obviously, senior people are likely to have more expected of them than junior people, so you can (and should) establish degrees of expectations for each of these groups. Once you’ve established the expected level of proficiency by role and level, you can now measure each individual against that standard and identify where they need improvement.This creates a foundation for the entire organization to be focused on learning – knowing that you, as a leader, have expectations for each individual’s advancement.By establishing a baseline, you can measure improvement over time in each category of competency.
Some organizations have competency frameworks spanning hundreds of individual skills and knowledge. The complexity of your competency framework will depend on the attitudes, skills, knowledge and process you expect and the various types of competencies your professionals require.Similarly, it will depend on the various categories of competency you require. For sales professionals, it’s quite common that you’d expect them to be proficient in several areas related to their function, as well as have robust business and personal competencies that you’ve determined will contribute to their success.
These are merely examples of competency areas you may want your people to have.
The next step is to identify the specific skills, knowledge, process or attitude that are needed to consider the individual proficient in that competency area.