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Debunking the Great Sales Myth

Written by: Peter Gilbert

Article Overview: The progress of sales as a profession is often hampered by myths, misunderstanding and plain ignorance. Over many years of testing, recruiting, researching and training salespeople, we have learned quite a few things about salespeople. Some may surprise you and some may not. The 39% factor Interviews with over 100 000 business decision-makers have revealed that in b-2-b markets a customer’s decision to buy is based on:- • Salesperson’s competence (39%) • A total customer solution (22%) • Quality of product or service (21%) • Competitive price (18%) The salesperson is the sale. • Many sales stars operate in commodity marks • Sales superstars usually dont shine academically • Sales talent can be sharpened not created • Sales training is not enough

Debunking the Great Sales Myth

Debunking The Great Sales Myths

The progress of sales as a profession is often hampered by myths, misunderstanding and plain ignorance. Over many years of testing, recruiting, researching and training salespeople, we have learned quite a few things about salespeople. Some may surprise you and some may not.

The 39% factor
Interviews with over 100 000 business decision-makers have revealed that in b-2-b markets a customer’s decision to buy is based on:-
• Salesperson’s competence (39%)
• A total customer solution (22%)
• Quality of product or service (21%)
• Competitive price (18%)
The salesperson is the sale.

Commodity sales reps as stars
Customers tell us that the best sales forces in the world are to be found in commodity and not “high tech” markets, as one might expect. The top 3 are fine paper, business forms and MRO (maintenance, repair and operations). The bottom four are pharmaceuticals, computers and software, delivery/freight, and telecommunications.

Sales superstars usually don’t shine academically
This has very little to do with intelligence and everything to do with preferences. Visit any campus and the sales superstars of the future will be on the rag committee, a member of the local drinking club, and perpetually in the students union, when he is not with his professor negotiating his F to an E. He knows everyone on campus and everyone knows him.

Sales talent can be sharpened not created
“You can’t train a person for a job they can’t do!” This old “saw” is typically forgotten in the rush to fill open territories or cover critical positions. The key is distinguishing between “talent-based” skills and those that can be learned. The most frequently identified talent positions include: sports, military leadership, political electability, entrepreneurship, creative writing, computer programming, design, mathematicsal, artistic, and most sales skills. This doesn’t imply you can’t teach anybody how to write programs, run for office, or play golf, but all the training in the world won’t make most of us into the next Ernie Els or Tiger Woods.

Sales training is not enough
We are all familiar with typical sales training. Some focuses on the basics and some on more advanced skills. These are necessary but not enough. Research in two categories sheds critical light on the sales skills that make a difference in the customer’s decision to buy.

The first comes from correlating customers’ rating of salespeople against the volume, margin, and repeat purchases they made. Only three sales skills made a difference:

The second source of research analysis focuses on why customers defect. The No.1 complaint? “The sales rep didn’t understand my business.” The most powerful sales training focuses on learning the customer’s business and being able to manipulate your own systems efficiently to serve the customer’s business priorities.

Top-performing salespeople cannot sell in all markets
It would be convenient to believe a simple philosophy, such as “just learn the skills and apply yourself, and you can sell to anybody.” Unfortunately, customers are too different for a one-size-fits-all approach. Some customers need a “high-tech” solution, while others need “high touch.” Some want neither and some want both. Just like professionals in other talent-based careers, the jack-of-all-trades is master of none. The most unique or specialised skills include new business development (hunters or rainmakers), strategic account managers, and outbound telesales personnel. Job descriptions that equally emphasise a number of criteria -- such as “penetrate existing accounts,” “develop new business,” and “expand to multiple contact levels within certain key accounts” -- cannot be filled by 99 percent of even the best salespeople. Even if such a rare superstar were found, the compensation level would be way out of reach.

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Article Tags: business decision makers, business forms, commodity sales, computer programming design, critical positions, customer solution, debunking, maintenance repair, military leadership, old saw, open territories, paper business, plain ignorance, rag committee, sales reps, salespeople, salesperson, software delivery, students union, telecommunications sales



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