Here is a simple test. Take a moment and write down in two or three sentences your description of your company’s main product or service. Don’t spend an exorbitant amount of time; just try to capture on paper the words you most often use in discussions with stakeholders.

Now let’s examine the nature of the words.

Are they primarily adjectives and adverbs describing physical characteristics and capabilities? Or are these words related to specific and desired improvements from a customer’s perspective?

The suggestion for this test arose after some interesting discussions following a column on the two selling mantras for professionals.

It appears that intellectually virtually everyone agrees on the correctness of the intent of realizing that customers buy benefits as opposed to features. And virtually everyone implied that their selling message always incorporated this insight.

Then I asked them to take the test.

Self-awareness can be a powerful force for change. When pressed, many were forced to admit that they had exercised a bit of selling license in their positioning of some features as actual benefits. Features are easy to learn and easy to remember.

Wallowing in sheer volume allows some to view themselves as experts and who better to give advice for a purchase, aka sell, that an expert?

Sadly, for both the seller and the buyer, these experts are proficient only in the mundane features of the product. Any good brochure or DVD is generally more beneficial from an information perspective.

And brochures and DVD’s are certainly less expensive than a walking, talking and benefit costing salesperson. So the hard reality is that unless a salesperson can translate the features of the product or service to the unique benefits suited for the unique needs of a customer, then you really have to question the need for that individual salesperson. In this example, a brochure is significantly cheaper and probably just as effective.

From a sales management perspective this is where some thought, properly applied, will pay huge dividends. The first commitment has to be to hire people who have the ability to think.

There are many approaches that an entrepreneur can take, but the goal is to find someone who can operate effectively in a world without recipes. The second commitment has to be to invest the time, energy, and money into making sure that a salesperson is properly trained before he or she ever knocks on a door.

The tendency is to want to get them out selling as soon as possible and have them start paying for themselves and making some money for the company. All good intentions, all assuming a quality of salesmanship that is uncommon, all doomed to fail without a proper training program.

Successful training programs always begin and end with the customer’s perspectives.

Successful companies incorporate sales forces that view themselves as de facto extensions of their clients’ businesses. This directly implies an ongoing commitment to lifelong learning that many amateurs are just not prepared to make. This is why there are so few truly professional salespeople.

The best products or the best services are doomed to mediocrity or even failure if left to the devices of amateur salespeople. Take the initiative to raise the bar of selling expertise in your organization and the results will astound you.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com