MSSSB Workshop Says Sales and Marketing Skills Falling Short

Shortfalls in sales and marketing skills can lose sales, reduce customer satisfaction, and tarnish a brand.

Incognate was recently invited to contribute to a workshop on the topic held by the Marketing and Sales Skills Standards Setting Body (MSSSB). Participants included sales and marketing directors from leading companies including O2, Aegon UK, SAGE, EDF Energy, Sigma-Aldritch Company Ltd and Alliance and Leicester.

The workshop found that:

• Skills shortfalls clearly exist at all levels in sales and marketing roles across most industries.
• ‘Soft’ skills are most often lacking, including communication and listening skills at junior levels, and leadership and people skills at management levels. Time management and selling skills are among ‘hard’ skills lacking.
• Educational and occupational qualifications are better defined and more highly regarded in marketing than in sales, but there is much room for improvement in both areas.
• Marketing professionals who participated in the workshop identified fewer gaps/shortages in the provision of training for their occupation.
• It was also reiterated that a higher prioritisation of marketing, and a greater role in steering company strategy, would serve to address some of the skills shortages identified.
• The lack of a common skills development framework means that offerings from training providers are inconsistent. As well, return on training investment is hard to measure. Finally, sales may be perceived as an ‘intermediate’ occupation. These factors all reduce training investment.
• Continuous development is preferred to one-off courses but is in short supply. Training generally doesn’t develop the ‘soft’ skills needed.

For the future, participants felt that sales and marketing staff should be better equipped at the start of their careers, and momentum maintained through continuous development and the availability of ongoing training at all levels. This should be combined with a recognised and respected framework of qualification and skills benchmarks against which to track progress.

Further information about the MSSSB can be found at www.msssb.org

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