{"id":1345,"date":"2020-03-12T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:34","slug":"skilling-up-a-fun-term-for-an-important-sales-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/skilling-up-a-fun-term-for-an-important-sales-task\/","title":{"rendered":"Skilling Up: A Fun Term For An Important Sales Task"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most of us don\u2019t wake up thinking, \u201cToday I\u2019m going to be skilling up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, skilling up probably seems too vague to be written out as an item on a to-do list. <\/p>\n

Even our managers \u2014 the people who tend to be most concerned with our professional development \u2014 are unlikely to ask, \u201cHow\u2019s your skilling up going?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether you refer to it as skilling up or upskilling, however, the meaning is the same: this is the deliberate practice of deepening your competence in an area like sales, or acquiring new expertise that will help you sell better. <\/p>\n

It might be easier to conceptualize skilling up by thinking about the consequences when it doesn\u2019t happen. Reps start to lose out on important ways to connect with customers and prospects, fail to nurture relationships effectively and, eventually, begin to see their win rate plummet and fail to meet their quota. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, skilling up might provoke a pretty natural question: \u201cSkilling up to what?\u201d If you\u2019re an experienced sales rep, for instance, do you really need more training about selling<\/a>, or using the basic skills<\/a> associated with selling? <\/p>\n

The best sales reps<\/a> will tell you the answer is yes. Rather than settle into complacency or risk falling behind their competitors, they recognize that skilling up is something you\u2019ll never fully complete, because there\u2019s always more to learn.<\/p>\n

If you approach it with the right attitude, though, it can also be something that keeps the job fun and interesting. Let\u2019s get started: <\/p>\n

1. Get ahead of a performance review with a self-assessment preview<\/h2>\n

The areas where you need to skill up will often come during that annual time of year where you sit down with your manager and go over what\u2019s happened over the previous 12 months. Sometimes this can be an uncomfortable exercise for both parties, but less so when a rep proactively takes ownership of the process.<\/p>\n

Even if your performance reviews at work don\u2019t mandate a step involving self-evaluation, take the time to do one before the meeting with your manager takes place. On a quarterly basis, for example, rate yourself on areas such as: <\/p>\n