How to bridge the sales experience through frameworks.
An excellent question about sales experience from a Sales Club member prompted this article:
How do you teach new salespeople to read the client?
He continued, "How do you teach them to understand customer personalities and only provide the information when they are open to hearing it?”
Some salespeople seem much more able to read customers than others. Such talent reinforces the idea that salespeople are born rather than made.
There are people born with better genes for selling and those who have acquired great sales skills because of their life experiences. The vast majority have to learn the hard way, via many years of practice, failures and setbacks.
Sales Experience Meaning
Having the intent to persuade in countless interpersonal encounters and managing the sales process for numerous sales campaigns is the path to sales experience.
Can a training course, teacher, coach or mentor help less experienced salespeople bridge the gap?
If we can equip those embarking on a selling career with the equivalent sales experience and judgement of twenty-year professionals the world will become wealthier.
Every sales environment and every sale is different so selling is difficult to systematise. Unexpected situations inevitably undermine all systems that dictate a particular strategy, tactic, or style. Those who learn from experience come to know what works in which situations and can adapt or switch their approach to suit.
To help salespeople judge situations in the same way that the most experienced top performers do, we present frameworks. A framework models how successful sellers make the choices that lead to success.
The resulting diagrams are simple to understand and use. The example illustrated at the top of this page identifies four selling arenas that require different approaches.
Warrior Selling
One person can have enough knowledge and skills to complete a sale and the selling price is relatively low. The warrior seller can fulfil all of the customer’s decision-making needs. Success as a warrior seller depends on their efficiency. They rely on winning many lower-value sales.
Eagle Selling
One person can have sufficient knowledge and skills to complete a sale and the offering has a very high price tag. The Eagle Seller can also fulfil customer decision-making needs without a referral. Success in this arena depends on the ability to engage with high-net-worth individuals or senior executives.
Crew Selling
The high complexity means that specialist expertise is necessary and the seller cannot have or maintain the necessary knowledge or skills to complete a sale. A small team of specialists are needed to meet customer decision-making needs. Crew selling success depends on teamwork.
Tribal Selling
When the complexity, impact, and value of a sale are very high, teams of people in both the seller's and customer's organisations must be involved to fulfil the decision-making needs.
In the high-value complex sales arena, leaving anything to chance invites disaster. A sales effort involving the supply of several million pounds of new manufacturing machinery has significant risks for both seller and buyer. The outcome will affect jobs, careers, and investors. The degree of success or failure affects every stakeholder and employee in both companies. Such circumstances bring new meaning to the term ‘due diligence’.
The diagram helps with planning at all levels. If you are selling in the Warrior arena, your focus should be on efficiency, automation, and the number of customer interactions. If you operate in the Eagle arena, you should be more concerned with access to the right customers. Those working in the Crew arena must pay more attention to team management. If you are leading a Tribal campaign, strategy, planning, communication, and project management come to the fore.
This page lists other frameworks we use to illustrate the meaning and impact of sales experience. The frameworks help new salespeople bridge the gap. There are many illustrating articles and information on this site.
Article by Clive Miller
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