If anyone has doubts about how much professional selling is changing, download and read Mike Schultz and John Doerr’s report, What Sales Winners Do Differently. Mike and John were curious about the buyer’s perspective. They interviewed hundreds of buyers to see what the winning sellers do and how it differed from those who competed, but weren’t selected. The results are compelling. I wish I could say surprising, but it’s what we and others have seen for years. But now their data supports what many have been talking about qualitatively.
The report highlights a number of issues. A couple leaped out to me:
Winners and those coming in second (let’s face it, the losers) are almost completely opposite in their approaches. I extracted some data from their report (see the end of this post). Of the 42 issues they studied, the top 10 issues for winners–none ranked higher than 19 with the “losers.” The top factor assessed by buyers, “Educated me with new ideas or perspectives, ” was the greatest failure for “losers.” What causes people to win is completely different from what others do!
The second thing is sales excellence can’t be attributed to one thing. A lot has been made of insight. Much of the thinking has been, “If we teach customers something new, that’s all we need to do to reposition ourselves.” Insight and educating customers is critical, but winners do the whole job. They engage customers differently, they create value in different ways, they develop deep relationships, and more. Top performance is about doing the whole job well, not just part of it.
There should be no question about it. Selling has changed–forever and for the better. Buyers are driving that change. The difference between how those who win and those who don’t is profound. The message is clear, the choice is yours! Make sure you read, What Sales Winners Do Differently.
