Over the past week, I've raised a lot of debate with my Posts On Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture On The Future Of The Profession:
Over
at The Customer Collective, Donal Daly of the TAS Group, suggested we
look at developing a Sales Certification platform to start doing
something about the level of professionalism in sales. He has been
generous in offering TAS Group resources in developing something.
Others, Christian Maurer, Niall Devitt, Neil Warren, Dave Stein, Paul
McCord, and others have weighed in on the topic.
It may be time to look at sales certification and how we might improve our practice---if only to save ourselves from ourselves.
Many
professions are required certification/licensing to practice their
professions. Doctors, Pharmacists, Lawyers, Accountants, even certain
categories of Engineers are required to pass rigorous studies, testing,
and proof of experience in order to practice. These requirements for
certification are mandated legally and have central "certifying" bodies
that set the standards and administer the certification process.
There
are other types of certification that act like "Good Housekeeping Seals
Of Approval," and indicate some level of training and experience
"certified" by a sponsoring organization. In the IT world, Microsoft
and Cisco certified people are highly sought after.
Many other
professions offer "certifications," though I, somewhat cynically, think
they are more oriented to maintaining membership (while they do have
certain knowledge and ethics requirements).
For example, there
are "Certified Management Consultant" and "Certified Professional
Speaker" certifications. I've actually considered both, but when I
start talking to current and professional customers about it, their
responses were: "Say what?????" or "Who are they to tell me whether you
are any good or not?" of "Never heard of it, who cares!"
There
are actually several organizations that offer some kind of sales
certification, but I have to admit that I've never asked any of the
thousands of sales people I work with every year whether they are
certified.
Recently, after all the corporate scandals, there
have been people in the government and august organizations like
Harvard, proposing some types of certification for executives.
With
all this as background, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings
about "certification" --whether legally mandated or industry driven.
I'm one who believes the tag line of an old joke "What do you call 200
lawyers at the bottom of the ocean.....A good start!" We've seen lots
of "questionable" practices by lawyers, accountants, doctors and
others. Sometimes it means you jumped a series of hurdles, but it
doesn't necessarily make you any better as a professional, more
trustworthy, or more ethical.
Others--like the Microsoft and
Cisco certifications sometimes seem to have greater value in enhancing
a resume and getting a job. There is a level of knowledge, but there
are equally knowledgeable, sometimes better people who have not gotten
the certification.
And, in my own case, no one has ever asked me
whether I am a Certified Management Consultant or Professional
Speaker---though a frustrated customer did call me certifiable
(reconfirming my wife's claims).
I do think we need to raise the
level of professionalism in the practice of selling. I hear this from
everyone I talk to--both on the sales side and customer side. While I'm
not certain certification is the answer, I don't have any better ideas.
Perhaps
we can start another discussion. What do you think? I'd love your
comments. Even better, I put up a quick survey to collect opinions and
ideas. It will take you no more than 5 minutes to complete. The survey
has two tracks: What do we as sales professionals think? What do our
customers think? Go take the survey, encourage your peers to take it,
ask your customers to take it. I'll report the results in a few weeks.
Here's the link for the survey: Should Sales Professionals Be Certified?