Sales: Art or Science?
Throughout my career in sales, sales management, and executive management, top-line revenue growth has always been job number one. As a result, I have interviewed, hired and managed countless salespeople.
I’ve consistently encountered the question, “what makes a great salesperson? My standard response, which I am not the first to say, is that selling is both art and science.
There are numerous great books about sales. Many of these provide an excellent blueprint for implementing a clearly defined, repeatable sales process. Depending on your type of business (B2B, B2C, online, physical, etc.), any of these frameworks can be game changing, especially if fully supported and adhered to by your sales team. Going through a deep analysis of your sales and revenue management processes may also surface ideas for improving your business model. As a Harvard Business Review article noted, “sales results are better at companies who have some form of documented, repeatable sales process, versus not having one.”
Regardless which process you adopt for your organization, key ingredients include recruiting, training, KPIs, pipeline management, competitive analysis, and continuous improvement. To maximize the impact of a new or updated sales process not only requires the right team, but also the organizational discipline to successfully implement, track and adjust as necessary. Further, the process must be committed to and become part of the culture for the entire organization, not just the sales team. A well designed and supported sales process will absolutely improve sales results, even for your average performers. Sales process, training, enablement tools and dedication to continuous improvement all contribute to the success of the sales organization. This is the “science” of sales.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into the art of selling, the intangibles that most great salespeople have, innate or developed over time, but are difficult to teach. The old saying that great salespeople are born, not made, while not an absolute, has some credence.
Based on conversations and observations over the years, I’ve learned that to be successful in sales, meaning to achieve results consistently year after year, a good salesperson most, if not all of the following traits:
Passion
Persistence
High energy
Natural curiosity
Ability to ask probing questions coupled with great listening skills
High emotional intelligence
Empathy
Coachable
Works well with teams
Smart
Ethical
Excellent time management skills
Great problem solvers
You could argue that many of these traits apply to every job, and I would agree those attributes would likely foster success in any field. However, for people in sales, if some of these traits are missing it greatly diminishes the chance of being a star. Arguably some of these traits are innate vs. teachable skills. For instance, I can teach a salesperson about the industry, product knowledge and value proposition. I can’t teach passion or high emotional intelligence – a person naturally has those traits, or they don’t.
When I ask young people why they are in sales or want to be, I commonly hear things like, “I enjoy meeting and working with people”, “I want to make money”, or “I like being my own boss”. Those could all be true and seem like reasonable responses, but they are not critical success factors. In fact, those responses are at best somewhat naive.
The art of selling really comes down the to the heart and soul of a person, how dedicated they are to put in the hard work to master their craft. Besides knowing the industry and their own solutions, which are givens, a true professional is able to help a potential customer identify their problem(s), the impact of not addressing those problems, and then craft a solution which solves those problems in such a way that it is virtually impossible for the customer not to buy, unless they are not really committed to solving the problem. Working with people or making money are benefits of being good in sales, not the primary reasons for being in sales. I’m not saying it isn’t important to connect with people or build relationships. It’s how you connect with people, on a level where they believe you understand their problems and that you can solve them.
It’s implicit in a sales situation that a business transaction might occur, and money will change hands. It is also understood that a salesperson represents the interests of their company, and conversely, a prospective customer is protecting their company’s interests. If a potential customer doesn’t believe you understand and are earnestly trying to help solve their organization’s problem (and in the process, help them personally), it’s very unlikely to result in a sale.
A true connection in sales is no different than in any other relationship, whether it’s between friends, family members, or a spouse. People need to believe they are being listened to when sharing their concerns. Not only that, in today’s business environment, most people are reluctant to invest the time to educate salespeople. A salesperson must be able to quickly and effectively uncover a customer’s problem, determine if their company can actually solve it (so as not waste each other’s time), and genuinely want to help them solve it - meaning that salespeople also need to be great problem solvers.
When I think about hiring and investing in salespeople, I look for passion, energy, and intelligence (emotional and ability to learn quickly). Any company with solid sales management, good sales process, training, and good marketing can train salespeople on their products or solutions. What you can’t teach is passion, energy, the willingness to engage and problem solving (at least I’ve never figured out how to). When people say, great salespeople are born, they are referring to those innate qualities or traits.
Another trait mentioned repeatedly related to sales is persistence. To me, persistence means more than simply willing to repeatedly call people until getting a meeting (although that certainly requires persistence). It’s about being persistent in everything it takes to evolve from being an average salesperson into a true professional, AKA “a trusted advisor” to customers. It means consistently doing the hard work, doing your homework, knowing your solution, your competitors, buyer personas, and consistently following the sales process to maximize sales productivity. It also requires evolving as a person by learning new skills and strategies, and of course, the persistence and skills required to ask excellent, probing questions to get to the heart of a prospective customer’s problem.
In a book I read by Mark Manson, he tells the story (and I’m paraphrasing) about when he was younger, he wanted to be a rock and roll guitar player. However, as the years progressed, he never did anything toward achieving that goal. He didn’t take lessons, didn’t practice, he basically did nothing to achieve his “life’s goal”. What he eventually realized is that he was in love with the idea of being a successful rock and roll guitar player, but not the hard work, dedication and commitment to get there. Similarly, many people go into sales because they think it’s a great way to make money and they’re enamored with the idea of being in sales, but don’t dedicate the time and hard work to do it professionally, and then wonder why they have mediocre results.
Early in my sales career a prospective manager asked me, “do you love to win, or do you hate to lose?” When I answered his question he smiled and said there was no right or wrong answer. I ultimately got the job, so apparently, he liked most of my answers. Over the years, I’ve incorporated that question into my interviews. It’s not a make-or-break interview question, but I enjoy seeing how people react, and describing why they picked one or the other. My experience has been that most salespeople say they hate to lose, which was my answer to the question many years ago. Winning feels great and it’s one of the reasons we compete in anything. However, when you lose a sale, it’s generally because you didn’t do your homework, didn’t fully understand your prospect’s needs or something else that you didn’t learn sufficiently in the discovery part of the process – the absolute most important part of any sales process. You not only feel bad for yourself and your company, but you also feel as if your prospect lost too, insofar as they didn’t implement the best solution.
When talking about the “art of selling”, I am referring to those intangible, necessary traits, which are easy to spot, but difficult to teach. It’s those internal qualities that enable a person to become a professional salesperson, who, year in and year out, meet or exceed their company’s and personal sales goals. Many salespeople can be successful when they are in the perfect situation, with a hot product or service. Truly great salespeople are consistently successful in any market, because they have mastered the science of selling and leverage their innate talent to solve problems for their customers.