As I rounded a sharp turn in the bike path, I caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar shadowy figure. Startled, I slammed on the brakes.

It was a warm summer morning and I was bicycling near my home in Denver, Colorado.

As my heart slowed from a gallop to a trot, my eyes focused on a Great Blue Heron parked in the cool water of the South Platte River. I paused for a longer look.

The Great Blue Heron is a stunning bird with a head-to-tail length that can reach 4 ½ feet and a wingspan extending to more than 6 ½ feet. They are brilliant hunters.

The heron stood as frozen as a statue, gazing into a deep, clear pool for several minutes.

Then, ka-poosh! Too fast for the eye to register, it speared and consumed one of the river’s amphibious residents and gracefully flew away.

As a sales professional, you are surrounded by opportunities. Opportunities exist whether:

• Your customer’s business is growing or shrinking

• Markets are in an upturn or downturn

• Your competition is strong or weak

• The economy is sick or healthy

To recognize and act intelligently on the biggest opportunities, you want to be at your best. You need all the shrewdness, intelligence and expertise you can rally.

It seems that exemplary sales skills would carry you in these situations.

The fact is that traditional sales techniques seldom help you capture the biggest opportunities.

The more you talk about the quality of your product, your outstanding customer service and your excellent delivery schedules, the more likely the opportunity will slip away.

Here are some lessons sales pros can learn from the Great Blue Heron:

• The heron stands poised, alert, patient

• It is a keen observer

• It knows what can be hiding in perilous waters

• It analyzes the currents

• It waits for adequate visibility

• It knows the risks

• It confidently takes action

The heron’s understanding of its environment is as vital to its success as its hunting skills. Maybe even more so.

That’s the way it is in the sales profession too.

Your knowledge and understanding of your customer’s business is more vital to your success than your sales skills.

Of course you must have solid sales skills to capitalize on opportunities, but business acumen trumps sales skills.

Top-performing sales professionals:

• Are keen observers

• They understand their customer’s business

• They know their customer’s critical business issues

• They know their customer’s business strategy

• They know their customer’s markets

• They know their customer’s competitors

In short, sales pros have strong business acumen.

Business acumen allows you to identify ways to help accelerate your customer’s business. That’s where the greatest opportunities lie. And that’s what customers are willing to pay for.

Customers are often turned off by the overuse of traditional sales skills.

Customers will forgive sales skills stumbles if you have ideas that can help keep their business healthy and growing.

Invest in your success by developing rock-solid business acumen.

Then when you are surrounded by sales opportunities, it’s blue heron time…poised, alert, patient, ready to act confidently.

(This article may not be reprinted or copied without written permission from Howard Wallin.)