Evolution of Sales Methodologies
Selling has existed from time immemorial for trading and barter of goods & services is as old as history itself. The concept of sales as we know it can trace its origins to per-industrialization era. The proprietor of the business was focused on producing and meeting orders; selling, marketing, and accounting were regarded as secondary. Often these orders were already in hand before the production even started and the objective was simply to meeting the burgeoning demand.
The advent of Industrial Revolution brought with it, major organizational changes to the DNA of various businesses. Organizations now shifted focus to mass production & diversification of assembly. Since the local communities (which were the traditional consumers of the produce) could not consume all that was manufactured, a need for increasing the sales coverage was felt to find newer markets for the excess products. Thus, was born the sales function & modern day salesman. To begin with the primary role of this sales force was restricted to acquiring customers. The fact that most of them were paid strictly on a commission basis fostered a mercenary like attitude. They cultivated very little loyalty to either the company or to the interest of the customers in to whom they sold the products. The entire focus was on manufacturing correctly, shipping in time and meeting the sales quotas. It was a seller’s market and since the demand outstripped the supply, very little attention was paid to how the selling was taking place. This form of selling remained unchanged until the late 1970s.
It is believed that the first formal sales program was created by John Henry Patterson of National Cash Register Company (later NCR), in Dayton, Ohio. By the late nineteenth century, Patterson had already formed the classical sales force for the 20th century which was divided by territories and had quotas to achieve. While there was a significant improvement in the field of sales management, the technique of most salesmen (or salesmanship) was very much personality driven. The sales process was centered on effectively delivering a pre-defined sales pitch and therefore the entire focus was to make more calls, delivering the pitch effectively & quickly moving on to the next suspect.
With the advent of technologically advanced products & increasing complexity of buying behavior various methods of selling started to evolve to meet diverse selling situations. Concepts like one-off selling (simple sales situations); Relationship selling & customer centered selling (developed by Xerox Corporation); complex selling; High probability selling (Skimming the highest potential customers) & buying facilitation gained popularity. Late 80’s & early 90’s also saw a lot of sales process being popularized and put to test and included popular ones such as ADAPT, AIDA, LAIR, LOCATE, SELL , SPIN, FAB etc. Towards the end of the 90’s sales were increasingly being recognized as a profession. It was accepted that with increased complexity in the client requirements and their business pains, the sales person had to become a trusted advisor to the client. This was the era of buyer’s market and the clients reigned supreme. The sales process now involved spending quality time with the client to understand their pain areas and thus provide solutions (not products) to assuage these pain points. Thus was born the concept of consultative solutions sales. However, the applicability of a particular sales process to a sales situation was something that the sales person has to decide. This was based on his experience & variables involved in the sales situation, what kind of sales process is best suited for deriving maximum value for both the client as well as organization.
While growing demand for customization & available options, consultative sales as a concept has proven to be increasingly being used. This focuses first on understanding the needs and buying motives of the client's and then ensuring a solution is provided that fits with these needs and motives. Given the varying customers pain points, this approach meant ability to provide customized solutions to the clients every time. While this has led to significant increase in the gestation time for the same cycle, it however represented a tremendous upside in the sales value that could be derived. This type of sales however suffered from a drawback. Notwithstanding the critical importance of the customer pain points, some excellent selling organizations started to get pushed out of business, since their interests took the backseat in this approach, indirectly hurting the client & the client-supplier relationship.
Going forward, the sales processes are becoming increasingly collaborative in nature. There is a growing partnering mentality between client and salesperson. There is a renewed realization that long term success is dependent on both parties surviving & growing in their respective businesses. This means that while the client’s needs remain supreme in the sales cycle, the client shows flexibility (e.g. Payment terms, supply timelines etc.) to make the sale a win-win situation. Reciprocity & adding long term value to each other’s businesses therefore becomes the key in collaborative selling.
The advent of Industrial Revolution brought with it, major organizational changes to the DNA of various businesses. Organizations now shifted focus to mass production & diversification of assembly. Since the local communities (which were the traditional consumers of the produce) could not consume all that was manufactured, a need for increasing the sales coverage was felt to find newer markets for the excess products. Thus, was born the sales function & modern day salesman. To begin with the primary role of this sales force was restricted to acquiring customers. The fact that most of them were paid strictly on a commission basis fostered a mercenary like attitude. They cultivated very little loyalty to either the company or to the interest of the customers in to whom they sold the products. The entire focus was on manufacturing correctly, shipping in time and meeting the sales quotas. It was a seller’s market and since the demand outstripped the supply, very little attention was paid to how the selling was taking place. This form of selling remained unchanged until the late 1970s.
It is believed that the first formal sales program was created by John Henry Patterson of National Cash Register Company (later NCR), in Dayton, Ohio. By the late nineteenth century, Patterson had already formed the classical sales force for the 20th century which was divided by territories and had quotas to achieve. While there was a significant improvement in the field of sales management, the technique of most salesmen (or salesmanship) was very much personality driven. The sales process was centered on effectively delivering a pre-defined sales pitch and therefore the entire focus was to make more calls, delivering the pitch effectively & quickly moving on to the next suspect.
With the advent of technologically advanced products & increasing complexity of buying behavior various methods of selling started to evolve to meet diverse selling situations. Concepts like one-off selling (simple sales situations); Relationship selling & customer centered selling (developed by Xerox Corporation); complex selling; High probability selling (Skimming the highest potential customers) & buying facilitation gained popularity. Late 80’s & early 90’s also saw a lot of sales process being popularized and put to test and included popular ones such as ADAPT, AIDA, LAIR, LOCATE, SELL , SPIN, FAB etc. Towards the end of the 90’s sales were increasingly being recognized as a profession. It was accepted that with increased complexity in the client requirements and their business pains, the sales person had to become a trusted advisor to the client. This was the era of buyer’s market and the clients reigned supreme. The sales process now involved spending quality time with the client to understand their pain areas and thus provide solutions (not products) to assuage these pain points. Thus was born the concept of consultative solutions sales. However, the applicability of a particular sales process to a sales situation was something that the sales person has to decide. This was based on his experience & variables involved in the sales situation, what kind of sales process is best suited for deriving maximum value for both the client as well as organization.
While growing demand for customization & available options, consultative sales as a concept has proven to be increasingly being used. This focuses first on understanding the needs and buying motives of the client's and then ensuring a solution is provided that fits with these needs and motives. Given the varying customers pain points, this approach meant ability to provide customized solutions to the clients every time. While this has led to significant increase in the gestation time for the same cycle, it however represented a tremendous upside in the sales value that could be derived. This type of sales however suffered from a drawback. Notwithstanding the critical importance of the customer pain points, some excellent selling organizations started to get pushed out of business, since their interests took the backseat in this approach, indirectly hurting the client & the client-supplier relationship.
Going forward, the sales processes are becoming increasingly collaborative in nature. There is a growing partnering mentality between client and salesperson. There is a renewed realization that long term success is dependent on both parties surviving & growing in their respective businesses. This means that while the client’s needs remain supreme in the sales cycle, the client shows flexibility (e.g. Payment terms, supply timelines etc.) to make the sale a win-win situation. Reciprocity & adding long term value to each other’s businesses therefore becomes the key in collaborative selling.
Effective sales are the key to any organization’s growth and the sales person of the future is increasingly becoming a value creator. While newer models of touching the end client (e.g. online etc.) come in to being, they remain effective only for products that have simple buying process (e.g. books, cloths etc.). The salesperson of the future will increasingly don the roll of a trusted partner & advisor who works with the client through tough buying choices and provides solutions that solve their problems.
