The Sales Job
During a meeting I was asked an interesting question - 'What will you do if you are immediately posted in a completely new geography, in a domain that you did not understand and given a stiff target to achieve in a limited time period?'. The first thought that came to me mind was 'Why will you do that to me?'. Somehow, I blurted out an answer about reading industry magazines, becoming a part of an industry association, calling personal friends in the indutry and using sites like Linked In to make some initial contacts and taking it forward from there. I was not totally convinced; neither was the guy who asked me. He asked me to ponder a little more on the question and also asked me to talk to the Sales pros within the organisation.
Although I did followup on his advice, I was 
more intrigued with my question. I have afterall been working in a particular domain for some time now and have a fair understanding of the internal capabilities as well as the market. Why will they want to put me elsewhere when there were opportunities in my domain?
At about the same time I got a call from a close friend who has recently joined a financial products company in a sales capacity. He wanted to discuss his current challenges on prospecting and creating a mind share for his company and products in the market. As we discussed, it became clear that although both of us were working in entirely different businesses, the sales thought process was quite uniform. We had to perform a similar set of actions to achive our end goal of winning more customers and keeping them.
We spoke about how to go about the different Sales phases like Generating Interest, Creating and developing Relationships, Showcasing the solution or product, Obtaining a commitment, Delivering well and Creating repeat business. As we kept discussing and exchanging ideas, it became clear that the sales process was universal.
Although the MBA taught us this, most of us internally believed that domain knowledge preceded the Sales acumen or to put it another way, Sales acumen was necessary but not sufficient. Now I am all but convinced that a good sales guy with the right attitude and process can succeed whereever he is put, in whatever industry or geography. Do you think other wise?
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2 comments:
I do think otherwise, because I am convinced that domain expertise and technical skills pay a larger part than being adept at selling and selling well. Be it IT or ladders, one needs to have a good understanding of the domain in order to succeed, and this understanding does not dawn upon one in a matter of few hours.
My belief stems for the fact that I have been witness to instances where CIOs have all but shut doors on Sales persons, only because they seem to have one safe answer to her questions - "I will check with my team and get back to you on this". Salespersons who do not understand the domain well spend an awful lot of time on exchange of pleasantries and beating-the-chest talk and very little time in offering concrete solutions. They think they are adding value by their mere presence and that the nitty-grittys of the issues bothering the CIO would be addressed by domain-experts in subsequent stages. This can lead to several problems because the domain-expert is also subject to misrepresentation of facts - the salesperson is his only channel of communication with the CIO. There are multiple rounds of discussions and ultimately, Sales cycles get termed as long and tedious processes. All this would be simpler if the salesperson understood the domain and the technology fairly well. Having expertise in a particular domain is like having a specialty in Medicine; doctors who do not specialize are out of business sooner than later!
Anonymous,
Thank you for your comment and your view point. Enlightening!
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