The Sales Archaeologist

I just completed the book Stalingrad by Antony Beevor - a horrible conflict that happened on the eastern front in world war two from the fall of 1942 to the early spring of 1943. The siege and battle behavior of both armies - German and Soviet was in many ways a personification of the two sides radical and irrational leaders, Hitler and Stalin. This made for interesting reading but created an environment where the loss of human life was the last concern.

The Germans had followed their blitzkrieg model and bombed the city to pieces before attempting to invade. The shells of buildings and factories that were left however created natural barricades and protection for thousands of Russian troops and countless Snipers. The Germans had become so focused on clearing the city of Russians that they started to lose sight of the fact that their lines had become thin and that they were being surrounded. Everything they did and every move they made had an effect one way or the other.

In a selling situation it can be very similar. Every move you make is going to have either a good effect - speeding up the sale, creating commitment, uncovering compelling reasons etc or a bad effect - lack of trust, looking at your competitor, losing control of the process etc.

Having a process is important but following the process can be more important. Knowing about skills or tactics is great but unless they are executed - so what.

One of the things we do - before ever attempting to help is gain an understanding of what can be improved and how. If in every selling situation you were always able to not only know what the right thing to do or say was but actually carry out that action or speak those words, how valuable would that be. Not doing anything to improve is not being neutral it is being in reverse.