Although banking, consulting, engineering, and marketing have always been MBA program feeders, more salespeople are now looking to get their MBAs. The sales profession has changed drastically, and the stereotype of a pushy and aggressive salesperson who is flexible with the truth and talkative is something of the past. If you’re in sales, you know that a modern salesperson needs to have a broader skill set, not just a smooth demeanor, along with the ability to build relationships. However, not everybody knows what those skills are or how this critical function has evolved.
Disruptive buying trends have rewritten the rule book for sales professionals. With information readily available, companies (or their buyers) now do their own research through both digital channels and their more robust and accessible peer networks. In fact, research from CSO Insights shows that more than 70% of B2B buyers know what they want before they even contact a vendor, and Gartner found that buyers usually devote only 17% of their time to meeting with potential suppliers before making a purchase. Consequently, more than ever, sales professionals must be trusted advisors if they want to influence buying decisions.
Here are a few critical skills for today’s salespeople:
Embracing Technology
To adapt to the way their customers buy, salespeople must learn and leverage new technology. Sales professionals use this skill to work with customers at their current stage of the buying process and to engage with them in their preferred manner.
Listening Effectively
If the salesperson of the past was a good talker, today’s salesperson is a very good listener. Often, customers only reach out to salespeople when they have a complex situation; therefore, modern sales professionals need to listen closely, ask intelligent questions, and demonstrate they’re capable of helping customers solve problems.
Developing Business Acumen and Solving Business Problems
Forget about the sales process—if the buyer contacts a salesperson, it’s likely because there’s a problem they need help fixing. The best salespeople not only help customers navigate to the right solution but also must use data-backed insights to communicate the impact in business terms.
Mastering Storytelling
Engaging an audience has become harder than ever given the multitude of today’s distractions. Sales professionals must be able to create a compelling narrative and engage with their audience in various ways, such as through a conversation or a presentation and throughout a multi-month sales cycle or a multi-year relationship.
Of course, there’s a longer list of critical skills that modern sales professionals have adopted, and let’s be honest—these skills are not only important for salespeople. But make no mistake, the stakes are always high for a salesperson. Their paychecks depend on their ability to adapt in a world where customers regularly think a salesperson is not relevant.
Meanwhile, MBA programs have taken note of the importance of sales. Many top programs offer sales courses, such as Chicago Booth’s “Entrepreneurial Selling” course and Columbia Business School’s “Building the Sales Machine” course. Northwestern Kellogg has even started the Kellogg Sales Institute (KSI), which is led by Craig Wortmann, who is a clinical professor of innovation and entrepreneurship. During one of Professor Wortmann’s lectures that I attended while studying at Chicago Booth, he showed the class an income statement and asked us what the most important line was. This was his answer: “The top line (revenue) is the most important. Without that, nothing else matters. How do you get revenue? Sales!”
Sales pros, you should feel more empowered than ever because your craft is highly valued. So, how do you get into your business school of choice? Let’s dive into what you, as a sales professional, can do to get accepted to a top MBA program:
1. Know where you’re going—and why.
This is true for any applicant, but what’s unique about your story coming from a sales background? Maybe it’s hard for a salesperson to become a CEO, but many CEOs have MBAs. Do you want to be a CEO? Or perhaps you can accelerate a sales leadership career with a more comprehensive data and analytics skill set, a digital mindset, and a cross-functional understanding.
If there was an eye-opening moment when you realized an MBA is critical to achieving your goals, consider telling that story. For instance, did you lack the skills to persuade the CFO? Or maybe you didn’t have the leadership experience to lead a commercial team into a new market. Whatever it is, create a crystal-clear view of why it’s important to you, and communicate that through your essays. (Hint: It’s anchored in what you want to accomplish through your career!)
2. Explain how you’ll get there.
Most people won’t accomplish their career goals immediately after earning an MBA. Instead, they’ll follow a road map that may take several years to achieve. What’s your roadmap? Think of this as explaining, “Here are the gaps I need to fill, and this is how an MBA and my career road map will help me fill them.” I often find that humility is an admirable characteristic for applicants to exhibit when outlining this path.
Also, it’s important to remember that MBA programs want you to be successful, particularly in your immediate post-MBA career path. Therefore, don’t underestimate the significance of defining a specific short-term post-MBA goal that builds on your experience, skills, and knowledge.
3. Show them you have the academic chops.
Admissions committees need to know you can cut it in their rigorous academic environment. If your undergrad GPA isn’t strong, find other ways to demonstrate your academic prowess (see our “Five Tips to Build Your Quantitative Profile” blog post). Another way to do this is to knock your GMAT/GRE score out of the park. Dedicate the necessary time and effort to accomplish this.
4. Demonstrate your professional experience.
Your application materials should provide evidence of your skill sets and experience. In addition to demonstrating the skills of a modern sales professional and the other key skills you’ve acquired, consider how you can demonstrate the following:
- Career progression
- Industry or functional expertise
- The impact of your contribution (in business terms)
- Management of people, projects, or budgets
Make every bullet in your resume a mini story. (Follow these resume tips!)
5. Get a powerful recommendation.
How are you different from your peers? Can your recommender write specifically about that difference and how it has enabled your success? A recommendation that confirms you’ve hit your sales quotas is far less compelling than one that demonstrates HOW you did it. Think strategically about who your recommenders will be, nurture your relationships with them, and provide them with sufficient information to draft a recommendation, such as your career goals and details about the programs to which you’re applying. Check out our blog post, “4 Steps to a 5 Star MBA Recommendation,” to learn more.
6. What else is in your fingerprint?
How have you demonstrated leadership? Perhaps you’ve worked internationally. Consider your community involvement and activities outside of work. If you compiled an application that includes a resume and essays highlighting your numerous sales awards, revenue growth stats, and quota achievement, you are showing the admissions committees that you’re one-dimensional, and you likely won’t get in. Therefore, be sure to spend some time thinking about what else you do (or have done) to demonstrate that you are multi-dimensional and unique—because you are!
A sales leader once told me that he thinks of sales as “revealing the value” of his products and services. I loved that, and I encourage you to go out there and reveal the value of yourself as an MBA applicant to the schools you want to attend.