What exactly is it that salespeople DO anyway? Im talking about what they actually do, not what their company does or what their value proposition is, but what THEY DO day in and day out as a sales professional?

To be a complete sales professional, their daily activities should be in support of creating customer satisfaction and loyalty. What are these daily activities?

My Ph.D. research analyzed the outputs performed by hundreds of sales professionals. I found that these tasks can be grouped into nine areas. The key to being a highly competent (i.e. superstar) sales professional is to understand and master the following 8 Selling Abilty Areas:

1. Personal Management highly competent salespeople keep their personal life in check. They stay healthy. They set goals, they make plans for your future. They keep their finances in order. They find stress-reducers.

2. Selling Cycle Management -- The highly competent sales professionals seek out continuous comprehensive training and education to support their sales process. You should also be able to initiate, plan, and execute a sales process in order for your product or service to be assimilated into the buying organization. There are many systems out there to choose from.

3. Opportunity Management Highly competent sales professionals understand how to identify, manage, develop, and close the right sales opportunities. To do this, theyre experts at opportunity planning, territory management, opportunity development, and closing.

4. Relationship Management Highly competent salespeople become a trusted advisor to the buyer only happens when the sales professional is successful at building relationships, communicating, distributing information, and influencing others ethically through collaborative dialogue. Building relationships within your own organization is just as critical. Make sure that you take the time to forge relationships with your support teams, delivery teams, management or any other party that is involved in your sales process.

5. Expectation Management Highly competent salespeople continue their relationship after the sale. Providing top-notch service to buyers ensures repeat business and a solid sales reputation.

6. Priority Management Highly competent salespeople understand the crucial elements of managing personal time to achieve ones goals and objectives. Great sales professionals understand that they must define the right tasks for the day or month, prioritize them, schedule them and execute.

7. Technology Management Highly competent sales professionals utilize technology in order to maximize personal and organizational effectiveness.

8. Communication Management -- highly competent sales professionals understand their choices in selecting, delivering, and leveraging communications strategies and mediums in order to effectively get their message across.

There are many people that wonder why sales professionals are harried, have short attention spans, are always too busy, or seem a little flustered. Perhaps by identifying and understanding the 9 Selling Knowledge Areas, there is a newfound understanding why!

So the question is, what can you do today to become better in each of the 9 areas? Which are you the strongest in? Or in which area are you the weakest? Make plans to improve in each area every single day.