“Knowledge without skill is unproductive.” — Peter Drucker

If you haven’t started planning on how to succeed in 2012, don’t wait another day. Early industry reports indicate that the year ahead promises to be just as tough as 2011. What will it take to move forward in 2012? In my opinion, it will be mandatory for companies to have sales professionals who are not only knowledgeable about consultative selling but experts at executing each part of the sales sequence.

To truly grasp and address the issue, companies need to first determine what the sales professional knows — and doesn’t know. Then targeted sales training can be applied.