The Sales Archaeologist

There have been many changes to the business of selling over the years – but wouldn’t you agree that the last five have been more rapid, more drastic and require sales people to adapt more than ever before. When we start working with an organization we begin with an assessment that now measures a person’s ability to utilize sales 2.0 tools – but what does that mean?

If there were blogs 50 years ago I might be talking about sales people needing to have a well organized attaché case or pitch book. I might discuss the value of advertising in newspapers or having a collection of letters that provided testimonials from current customers. But even in 1961 these tools were not utilized by everyone. Even in 1961 only 6% of the sales population was the elite top performers and the rest were not so good – so what does that mean?

It means that tools are tools – some people use them and some people don’t!

So when we talk about the new tools, social media, networking, blogging, email, twitter etc …things have really not changed that much. Some use them and some don’t. Or more correctly some use them consistently and effectively and others don’t. This is a mindset issue that is closely related to the 21 core competencies we often discuss. Strong sales people in 1961 would be strong today and vice versa – they just find a way to make things work. They look at a simple brief case and say “I can make that work; I can use that to ______”

So while the market and the creators of these tools like to think that they are changing the scene and forcing sales people to adapt nothing could be further from the truth. The weak sales people will never adapt to the point where they are using the tools effectively regardless of what they do, and the top 6% are actually ahead of the curve and finding new ways to use these tools.

One tool that might be helpful to you or your people and is described here:-On-Demand Sales Development Webinar Series