We’ve all witnessed the danger that can come from those holding extreme views in politics and religion. Although the consequences aren’t nearly as dire, I see more and more extreme views hurting the sales profession. Who espouses and promulgates such views? It’s some of the so-called pundits who would have us believe that anything that used to work no longer does in the modern sales world. These nouveau “experts” proselytize the “death” of those terrible “old-school” sales fundamentals in order to promote their self-serving agendas. And unfortunately, there are lots of them and their voices are loud. They proclaim the death of solution selling, telephone prospecting, sales process; the list goes on. Some even proclaim the demise of the field sales person. “Why do you need field reps when buyers are already well past halfway through the buying process before they engage with a sales person and all your wonderful content has influenced them to buy from you?”, so the rationalization goes. Besides, your crack SDR team can surely do the demos and “facilitate” the buying process (even though they possess neither the skills or experience to do any real selling in many cases). David Brock recently wrote an excellent piece on this topic: Laziness and the 57%.
These “experts” sometimes cite biased interpretations of research statistics to validate their positions. I get it; they’re trying to sell something and provocative headlines sell better than bland statements. [For a great read on this see Steve Hall’s post, The Big (Sales Short).] But sadly, many of us don’t seem to recognize that it’s just hype. Instead we blindly gobble up their over-dramatized nonsense, diving full-bore into their “‘great new approach” that supposedly renders all past practices obsolete without stopping to ask some important questions; like “do they have an ulterior motive (commercial agenda)?”, “does this make sense for me, for my target customers?”, “how did they come up with these statistics and in what context?”.
It’s partly our own fault. We continually look for the next big thing, the shiny new object, the silver bullet, the magic secret, the easy way to sales success. We’re attracted to the extreme. We want to avoid the hard work of executing the proven sales fundamentals. But it’s also the fault of these so-called experts. Many have never really sold, or at least not for long. It seems that their only real knowledge about the “old way” consists of narrow definitions and twisted sound bites that conveniently support their claims. Don’t get me wrong, some provide a fair amount of helpful advice. But what irks me is that so many “throw the baby out with the bath water”. In order to promote their latest commercial venture, they take the position that all things old (aka tried and true) are no longer effective (i.e. they’re dead).
I believe these extreme views are not only unhelpful, they can be dangerous; they can lead us down a path that is a threat to our selling success. A few examples:
- Solution selling is dead – Many, if not most, of the people who narrowly define solution selling to differentiate it from their great new thing seem (from how they describe it) to not really understand what good solution selling entails and in many cases have no experience with it. Jim Ninivaggi drives home the point, saying “recent articles and blog posts positioning newer, provocation-based selling approaches have whitewashed, oversimplified and frankly misrepresented the history of solution selling“. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be guilty of throwing out the baby either. It’s true that buyers no longer want to be peppered with questions we should have known the answers to, and leading (i.e. challenging) with insights is getting much deserved emphasis today. But call it solution selling, consultative selling, insight selling, whatever, the fundamental tenants are as (or even more) relevant today as they were in the past. We still need to effectively probe to qualify (not just BANT though), then collaborate on, design and differentiate a solution to a business problem that is relevant to each prospect’s specific situation. That is the essence of solution selling.
- Social selling is the only way – Social selling holds lots of promise and if done well, has proven for many to be effective; no argument there. I believe in it. But that doesn’t mean that all other types of prospecting are “dead”. In fact all forms of prospecting, when skillfully applied, whether through social media, telephone, email, or face-to-face can be effective. Often it is a combination of some or all of these approaches that works best. But yet again, many who have never practiced or experienced effective prospecting are proclaiming it’s death, except for their “new” approach of course. As Mike Weinberg aptly stated in a recent post, “It’s not social or traditional. It’s social and traditional”.
- The death of the sales process – Yes, we need to be nimble, agile and creative to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and sticky situations as they inevitably arise. But that doesn’t mean we can’t adapt within a solid sales process; one that is buyer aligned and allows for flexibility within a proven framework. Repeatable processes are a must for any business function and sales is no exception. Perhaps these new pundits (who don’t seem to understand what a good sales process really is) are confusing it with a sales script. [For an accurate description of a good sales process read this post by Bob Apollo.]
- One size fits all – These pundits would lead us to believe that their new way is universally applicable to all selling situations. They tend to ignore the implications our diverse markets, buyers, products and sales organizations should have on choosing an approach. The devil is in the details. No single approach applies to all situations. Anthony Iannarino sums up this point nicely in “Five Lies About Selling”.
So what should we, the audience for all these ridiculous proclamations, do? First, don’t swallow everything we read or hear “hook, line and sinker” (please abide the fishing analogy). I suggest we step back and ask ourselves “Does this make sense for me”?; “does it fit for my situation?”. Second, we should seek different perspectives. For every person who trumpets the death of cold calling, I can find another who swears by it and has proven it works. And I strongly suggest we seek the opinions and guidance of those who have actually “been there”; people who have experience in both the old and the new. You’ll probably find that they appreciate nuance; that it’s seldom an either/or situation. In short, their views are not extreme, they’re just pragmatic!
