Whenever I see my grandson I ask him if he has any good stories for me. He’s only fourteen months old now, so mostly I get big happy grins and sounds starting to form into words that will eventually link together into sentences and be woven into fine tales to be shared. He’ll tell part of the story with his body, showing how he can crawl, walk, climb, carry the broom or the bucket, slap his knee, cover his eyes and become invisible. The sheer joy can enrapture a room full of “grown-ups” and connect us to something deep inside.
As I write this in the summer of 2018 there is a cacophonous buzz among the pundits and practitioners around the art and science of sales. Predictive Analytics engines devour seemingly endless streams of data and provide guidance on where we are likely to have success in the future, who will have the highest “propensity to buy”. There is also demand from experienced buyers looking for quantifiable results before they commit to a solution. The availability and value of this intelligence and these proof points varies widely by the maturity of the market served and solutions offered, but there is a major swing towards embracing the science of sales and a pervasive fear of being left behind. This is reminiscent of the CEO in the early 2000’s who instructed his CIO to “get us one of those cloud things” after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal on the emerging XaaS trend.
At one end of the spectrum it is quite likely we will see enormous value in focusing on the insights gained from the data that is mined, and any company should share examples of the tangible financial benefits enjoyed by their customers. Where the data is lacking, for instance in totally new markets or during the launch of new solutions and game changing innovations, the need for persuasive selling persists.
The question we need to ask is how do we avoid over-rotating and losing sight of the art of the sale? How do we address the emotional concerns and needs people face when making investment recommendations and decisions? What is the balance we must strike between hard ROI and TCO data and how the buyer relates at a gut level to our pitch?
At the very core of Sales and Marketing are the stories we tell. We talk in terms of our target markets, our audience, our buyer personas. We focus on the needs, pains and stay-awake issues which we can fix for them. Our goal in crafting our positioning and our messages is to persuade people to buy from us and not the other guys. As humans our buyers need the facts and data to justify their decisions, but they also need to trust us as sellers. They need to feel that they are going to be recognized and rewarded for their choices and that they are not risking their reputation or career by making a bad decision.
This leads us to the key question at hand, where are you on the spectrum of adopting the science of sales? Do you have great data to leverage in your targeting and value propositions? Do your stories make emotional connections like those of a fourteen-month old? Can your buyers see themselves as the hero, the wise woman, praised and promoted for making great decisions when they select your solution? Once you have a compelling story, can your sales people deliver it with belief and passion that (so far at least) no machine or algorithm will ever replicate? There is no single correct answer to the question “what does good look like” when balancing the science and art of selling. In future posts we will more deeply explore some the drivers and factors to guide our thinking in tailoring this mix for optimal results.