Macro and Micro Selling Skills. What are they, and what are the implications of improving micro skills?
Macro is the big-picture view of sales results. It’s a measure of progressive results. As an example, it’s the number of suspects that have been converted to prospects. The number provided with a quotation was then converted to a demonstration and closed. Macro is the conversion ratio or a measure of one person’s sales process compared to every other person in the sales team.
Macro measures results, not what happened in the sales process. Micro Skills includes but are not limited to the following.
- Selling skills
- Storytelling skills
- Oral communication skills
- Telephone skills
- Listening skills
- Written communications skills
- Prospecting skills
- Qualification skills
- Closing skills
Ranking these skills is subjective and can only be assessed by being present during any sales process where these skills have been used. While a subjective ranking may be arbitrary, it is, after all, better than no skill assessment.
Your experiences are no different from mine in the sense that you have been on a sales call where you cringed when you heard the response to an objection or, even worse, no response at all. So, placing a subjective ranking on these essential selling skills is possible.
In my book Sales Management—Coaching a Winning Sales Team, I have provided an example of an Excel Spreadsheet I have used to rank a salesperson’s skill level and place alongside it the level of improvement you believe is achievable. Taking it one step further, it’s possible to add a periodic assessment of what has been achieved.
The ratio of business closed is something everyone is interested in, and as a Sales Manager, you can place a lot of importance on improving that ratio. Any attempt to enhance ratios will affect the results, but those results will always fluctuate unless you find out the ‘WHY’.
Why ratios differ from salesperson to salesperson is simple it’s the difference in selling skills between each member of your sales team. The only way you will discover those differences is to spend time with your people while they are engaged in the selling process.
The Micro Selling Skills I use may not be perfectly suited to your industry or your sales situation, so make a list of your own that are applicable and get started.
I developed the following Excel spreadsheet to illustrate the different micro-skill levels of five hypothetical salespeople. I then applied a 5% increase in three selling skills for each person on this team.
This resulted in a 2% increase in closing ratios and an increase of two additional sales.
IMPORTANTLY, this increase in the Micro Selling Skills is a permanent change, and once confirmed, the coach can move on to another three Micro Skills.
Next week, we will look at building a team of Assistant Coaches
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