Pretend it is 1,000 years ago and you are brought into a cave and handed a sharp object to use as a scalpel. You are told to operate on someone laying on a table, and take out their "pain." Of course, you have had no formal training in this--and you tell your mentor of your concern.
He doesn't let you operate on your patient this time. You are told that you can watch him and others plenty of times, but there are "no silver bullets" to finding "the way." After 1 week, you have watched some operations. Then your "VP of Cave Medicine" comes to you. She tells you that you must complete 1 operation a day in order to get paid, and no less than 30 operations in a month. Of course, your formal training will begin in 45 days.
You don't start off too well. You "save" some, you "lose" some. "It's OK," you hear from your cave mates.
Then, the big training day arrives!
You are trained on:
- How to cut someone open
- How to take out their pain. It's called an appendix, you learn!
- How to ask questions to diagnose their pain
- How to conduct more operations in less time
- How to fill out your paperwork using graphite rocks
- How to work your "cave operation funnel" so you always have an operation waiting!
- Back into the fray you go!
You're really bad at this! You approach others that have been conducting these operations for years for help. You are told great sayings like:
- "Hang in there, you'll figure it out!"
- "Be patient, you'll find your way one day!"
- "The more you cut on someone, the more apt you are to figure it out!"
- "Increase the amount of operations you conduct and you'll save more lives!"
- Again, you "save" some, and you "lose" some, it's ok.
And then comes the shock:
"You are not conducting enough successful operations. You must now perform double the amount, and you'll be more successful!" It's all about how many operations you can line up. Don't worry about the ones that didn't make it. You'll get better! at what, you wonder...
Then, you read some books. And the books tell you things like "only certain personality types will ever be successful at cave operating!" Of course, you think, it's not everyone who can repeatedly lose someone on the operating table...
Welcome to the state of the Sales Profession today.
UPSA believes that if you are given the WHAT of the profession, you will learn how to plug in the "HOW" more effectively. Just as no doctor would ever cut on someone without truly understanding the "WHAT", UPSA believes understanding the "WHAT" of Sales will lead to a much "safer" sales environment. Just as medicine is a serious field, Sales is a serious business.
Billions of dollars are at stake--welcome to the new paradigm, and the new beginning.
To complete the analogy, if we give you the information about the "digestive system," "nervous system," "cardiovascular system," etc, you will have a framework that you can plug your knowledge into.
The UPSA Certification gauges your understanding of this framework. Just like the human body, it is universal, timeless, and able to be studied.
Companies in the US and abroad, as well as colleges and universities, are key players in creating this brand-new "education system" for Sales professionals. |
An Interesting Analogy?