Business acumen can be defined as quickness and keenness in dealing and understanding a “problem” that is likely to result positively. It also contemplates the ability of individuals to use available resources productively. Besides, business acuity has come as a major vehicle for promoting personal and professional leadership development at the workplace. It helps people who are running their profession to work better and increase organizational success chances.
What is Business Acuity?
In simple terms, business acuity is the ability to understand and apply a long-term, holistic, and strategic view of organizational requirements. Simply put, it is when you make choices that not only benefit your present company but years down the road as well. In other words, the formula for long-term success is first to build a reputation and then consistently focus on sustaining a reputation and trust with current clients and potential clients.
Business Acumen & Sales Performance
A major part of business acumen focuses on salespeople’s ability to identify customers’ needs and wants, allowing them to help their customers make informed decisions. By doing so, salespeople help managers build better customer relationships. And hence, they can improve the chance for repeat sales by implementing CRM for sales. Besides, the ability of salespeople to motivate and encourage others helps in improving their overall sales performance.
How Does Business Acumen Help Salespeople Grow?
As the owner of an organization, you should know why salespeople need business acumen. This is because every decision you make to put your work into place affects your long-term viability as an enterprise. And the only way to ensure long-term viability is to keep doing what you do best, which is making money! But it’s not enough to be a great salesman. A sales profession should rely on solid principles and practices. As a professional owner, you know that building a solid reputation and trust is an ongoing process that will take time, effort, continual tuning, and tuning to ensure that all the processes work together and complement each other.
Thus, business acumen with the help of CRM for sales people helps salespeople to:
- Develop and uphold the skills, processes, and strategies that work together to build and maintain a positive image.
- Maximize their income potential by knowing their limits and working within them. Think beyond their current methods and utilize better problem-solving strategies.
- Follow a proven path with minimal investment, known as the result-oriented one.
- Assess and ultimately make the best corporate decisions based on both current and historical facts.
- Look at a situation objectively and then develop a strategy based on that.
- Efficiently perform time management and follow clear-cut targets effectively.
- Effectively make good sound decisions for the organization’s welfare.
- Seek out new opportunities, which will ultimately increase their income.
- Find creative solutions that address the unique issues the customer has.
- Understand and analyze their customer’s needs and wants and build an everlasting relationship with the customers.
Also Read: Stages And Benefits Of Sales Pipeline Feature In CRM
What Happens When There’s a Lack of Business Acuity?
Business acumen is also important because those who possess it are more likely to stay with the company longer than others with less skill. If you’re looking for long-term employees for your company, business acumen can be one of the best things you can do.
Most of the most successful companies have a strong business acumen:
- They have strong leaders.
- They have great managers.
- And, they have b2b salespeople who have strong sales cultures.
When employees lack business acuity, companies can face negative consequences. Employee productivity and employee engagement tend to decline when poorly trained employees do not understand how their part fits into the larger picture, and this chick off your bottom line when you’re trying to run a sales venture.
Now, How Can Salespeople Develop Business Acumen?
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The answer might surprise you. It is by thinking like a customer. When you think like a customer, you will understand that you must first identify the customer before you can speak to them in their language. Also, by implementing CRM for sales automation, salespeople can develop acumen with the greatest efficiency.
Let’s understand some of the aspects of developing acumen:
- Observe
One of the best ways to develop acumen is through observation. You can observe how other salespeople conduct themselves in different situations. Learn how they word things and how they position themselves in their environment.
- Train & Simulate
Corporate training is a great way to help employees develop acumen and communicate their ideas effectively. You can use various training methods to help employees learn how to talk about the profession the right way. One popular training method is business simulations. Simulation trains employees on how to communicate their ideas properly. It will help employees see how to build bridges, give advice, and get their ideas across without getting defensive or turning others off.
- Pay Attention
Get into the habit of paying attention. Suppose you can learn how to do this consistently and under all circumstances. In that case, you will be able to read people’s body language and speech patterns instinctively and use that information to your advantage.
If you follow the mentioned principles, you will find that you can improve your understanding and perception of how people view you and your ability to sell.
Summing Up
If you’re thinking of what makes a great salesperson? Then, the most important quality for any salesperson is business acumen; without it, no amount of salesmanship would ever matter. And, after analyzing the benefits, the need for business acumen for salespeople is fairly self-explanatory. As stated in the beginning, every salesperson is required to think and act differently than they might do in any other role. To be successful, they need to think as clearly as possible and then take those thoughts and turn them into physical actions.