Selling : Arts or Science

That’s a question I’m often asked about business-to-business selling.

I define science (in this application of the word) as the ability and willingness of a person to follow a set of processes in order to carry on the business of day-to-day selling. Examples would be formal planning, the use of checklists, dependence upon research, vigilant qualification, etc. Traditionally, people who demonstrated such behavior have been labeled left-brained.

With that in mind, then art (again, as applied to selling) is the ability to excel at such things as interpreting nuances in a customer’s behavior, effectively responding to a question with relevant examples (and diagrams), making decisions based upon gut feel, counting on instinct and acting upon hunches as a critical success factor. That’s typical right-brained behavior.

In my experience, and in the opinion of many sales experts I trust, successful business to business sales people depend on 80 to 90% science and only 10 to 20% art.

An effective account plan should cover at least six critical sales rep actions. Here's a checklist for sales reps and their managers.

Develop an account profile. This should include potential sales volume, margin potential, operating fit (customer service needs), relationship versus transactional buyer behavior, and account history.

Identify whom you are hunting. Profile the key individuals in the buying center, including influencers. Generally, a surprisingly large number of individuals are involved.

Identify their needs. Determine what each individual needs to make your product or service most buyable. Is it support? Resale amount and quickness? Lifetime value of a customer relationship? Price? Endorsements? Quick visits or lengthy talks? Often this will vary by individual.

Determine how to open each door. For each individual in the account's buying center, what is the key reason why he or she will listen to you? What questions will be most compelling and show that you are in tune with his or her key needs or worries? This is a critical step, and the answers are not obvious. If this is not done well, the sales process turns into simply going in and asking for business; this is especially fatal when dealing with an account's top managers.

Create an action plan with steps, resources, metrics, and milestones. This should be a program that is tough, thorough, and robust. It should follow directly from the previous analysis. In the absence of a tight link, the action plan again will amount to simply going in and asking for business. The plan should have expected outcomes (volumes, likelihood) that can justify the investment of time and resources. Specify clearly what support or resources are needed from other departments in your company.

Create a coaching plan. It is critical that the sales rep identify the key points at which sales manager coaching will be needed by the sales rep to ensure the success of the account management process. Sales reps must be proactive in using their sales managers as one of their most valuable resources.

According to Harvard Business Review article on “the New Role of Rainmakers”, applying science when selling produces a 200% increase in productivity even when rainmakers are in their bad quarters. Big part goes to the fact of clear milestones that motivate sales people and accelerate the sales cycle. Today maybe we can call this methodology the best practice, but what I’m sure of is that within few years, this will be a standard processes and procedures within every sales department that is looking for the future.

Such Standards are:

1. Setting a validated sales strategy: Expanding a sales department and working harder is not your strategy, it is just what you want to do.
2. Targeted offering: Is the understanding of what you are best at and accordingly focusing on and how to offer. This entitles systematically segmenting and dividing clients and the way to approach them.
3. Setting stretched achievable targets: this is any company’s first step when creating sales plan. The key is to have it written, and revised quarterly. The targets should match the sales strategy rather than meeting shareholders’ net profit expectations.
4. Implementing a structured scientific approach and guidelines, with all the sales mapping processes, tools and MAPS, that aid in moving easily in a clear processed milestone and maintain sales efforts and energies.