aQuity

Differentiating The Science vs the Art of Selling

The Professional Sales Approach is based on 96% Science and 4% Art

What is the Science of Selling?

The Science of B2B Sales, its attributes and outcomes is summarised as:

• A structured approach to achieve a purposeful outcome
• Focus on what matters to keep the Client’s attention
• Focus on the Client’s challenges to gain credibility
• Reliance on reality, not wishful thinking
• A roadmap during the sales engagement
• Avoidance of uncertainties in the sales forecast
• Avoidance of wasted effort and selling time
• Avoidance of unnecessary resource allocation
• A catalyst for critical thinking and qualifying an Opportunity
• Employing professional engagement practices to
• Focus on the acquisition and retention of quality Clients
• Provision of a common and mutually understood terminology
• At a minimum, the provision of a personal Sales Strategy

Ultimately, the science of B2B selling is about helping people and their organisations, not just about attempting to make sales.

Above all, it promotes increased individual and organisational confidence in the engagement process.

Requirements to enable the Science of B2B Sales

Firstly, having the ambition to improve B2B sales results. Possessing an inquiring mindset and a fundamental understanding of the principles and practices is a starting point. The ‘B2B or Not to B…‘ eBook provides a guided learning path to the aspirant sales professional, the sales leader and the entrepreneur of the workings of the aQuity Methodology. Additional requirements are:

• An organisational Sales Strategy to provide direction and focus – strongly recommended
• A degree of self-discipline (we all struggle with this one)
• Embarking on a journey of Continual Improvement

The Art of Selling

The Art of Selling stands completely juxtaposed to the Science of B2B Sales. A handful of adept sales professionals have on rare occasions deployed the ‘Art’, but always within the confines of the structure of the Science. The former is epitomised by:

• Unstructured approach
• Purposeless engagements
• An acquiescent approach or alternatively a pushy attitude
• Gift of the gab to bore serious buyers
• Inadequate prior research resulting in false assumption
• Inadequate preparation for engagements resulting in limited outcomes
• Disproportionately deploying the mouth to the amount of ears they were issued with, producing irrelevant rhetoric
• Focus on what they have in their toolbox and not on the Client’s needs
• Not exploring the symptoms of the Client’s pain to uncover the cause
• Not identifying the competition
• Not validating Client statements
• Over promising and under-delivering
• Submitting pre-emptive and unqualified proposals
• Ignoring the Client’s envisaged Outcome at the cost of the business
• Poor discovery process practices resulting in inadequate information
• Lack of specificity when classifying an Opportunity.

Understanding the Science vs Art of Selling is a fundamental component of the sales professional’s toolkit. Avoiding costly blunders and avoiding wasting valuable selling time promotes productive results.