I got a comment from Rick Roberge regarding ABL and my "The Sales Call" blog.  It is always good to hear from others and be exposed to their feedback (both good and bad).

Rick's blog lead me to a post entitled "The End of Solving Seth Godin's Problems."  I agree with Pete (the author's) point of view and it is echoed my "The Sales Call" post.

Sales people typically only sell (i.e. present) and the don't diagnose or problem solve.  They are always worried about the sale (and rightfully so).

The buyers don't know they have a problem, they can't self diagnose, and don't want to be sold to.

What's a poor sales guy to do (and by the way, all you entrepreneurs out there, you may not think you are sales guys ... but you are).

This really begs the question, can you train (or retrain) a salesperson or an entire sales team to think in this new paradigm.

Unfortunately I think YOU HAVE TO RETRAIN else your cost of sales will skyrocket, your sales cycles will lengthen and you'll have a very hard time understanding why your not making your revenue numbers.

So here is my question:

"Do you trust a sales process or trust a salesperson?"

Right now, I tend to believe that you put together a tight sales process cookbook, train your sales team on the process, monitor their activities against the process and believe that the process will create revenue.

Notice there is no selling in the process.  It is a diagnosis and a leaving process in which your sales team quickly moves from presenting solutions to diagnosing issues and presenting solutions (not necessarily your solutions).

So, in the process vs. person stand off, who will win?

See you on the wire.

Steven Cardinale