Core Competencies

ICP curriculum reflects extensive research on skills and knowledge needed to succeed in industrial distribution, including:

• Expert review of existing literature.
• Delineation of practices by a panel of subject-matter experts.
• Focus groups with subject-matter experts to define skills and knowledge base of successful inside and outside sales representatives.
• Critical incident interviews with industry executives.
• Validation through detailed, written surveys of inside and outside sales reps.

Based on input from a panel of subject-matter experts, the curriculum defines skill blocks for beginner, entry-level and intermediate professionals:

• Core work activities.
• Logical learning sequence.
• Knowledge, skills, attitudes and other requirements.

Skill Block 3: Intermediate

Core Work Activities
(in order of recommended instruction)

• Check for voltage, current and continuity.
• Keep current on product and industry knowledge, trends and innovations.
• Determine sales potential of new/existing customers (by direct observation, interview and research).
• Apply product knowledge and technical ability to meet customer production demands.
• Solve customer productivity/efficiency problems by offering new or existing products.
• Negotiate/re-negotiate mutually agreeable terms with customers and suppliers.
• Research/document benefits and cost savings (ROI) to customer.
• Train customer on product installation, use and maintenance.
• Entertain current or potential customers after hours.
• Overcome customer objections to product price or brand.
• Manage/monitor account activities, inquires and communications.
• Suggest alternative products, components or parts that meet customer specifications and production requirements.
• Conduct formal training for customer's maintenance or engineering department.
• Perform equipment/product reliability, productivity and/or energy efficiency studies.

Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes and Other Requirements

• Basic skills, knowledge, behaviors and conditions of work.
• Estimate customer's growth potential and purchasing power based on economic conditions, financial status and competition in their market area.
• Know applications and technology associated with preventive maintenance.
• Know basic interviewing methods and techniques.
• Know customer's servicing and maintenance capabilities and availability of technical recourses.
• Know how to conduct a needs analysis.
• Know how to research and calculate/estimate customer's ROI in quantitative terms.
• Know interrelated/interchangeable capabilities of products or components.
• Read engineering drawings/prints (isometric, orthographic, sectional views, oblique, phantom views and offset).
• Research information using internet, technical manuals, databases, archives, and case studies.
• Understand basic economic principles of scarcity, choice and cost, market demand verses supply, quality verses price, profit and competition, and competition,substitution and specialization.
• Understand job functions of customer's production, quality, engineering and maintenance personnel.
• Develop modest technical training materials and present those materials in a formal training environment (classroom and on-the-job training).
• Know applications, terminology and technology associated with predictive maintenance.
• Know basic PLC language.
• Know standard industrial codes (SIC) of target industry groups.
• Read electrical schematics and read basic to moderately complex ladder logic diagrams.
• Understand principles and industrial applications of just-in-time, Six Sigma, total predictive maintenance and/or Kaizen.
• Use fishbone, Pareto, algorithm and if-then cause-and-effect troubleshooting techniques.

Skill Block 1: Beginner
Skill Block 2: Entry-Level

Download all skill blocks.