How Many Sales Levels of Abstraction Can You Handle at Any One Time?
“One particular talent stands out among the world-class programmers I’ve known—namely, an ability to move effortlessly between different levels of abstraction.” — Donald Knuth
— Computer Science (@CompSciFact) March 28, 2025
The concept of multiple levels of abstraction wasn't born through coders.
There's long been the thought of stages of abstraction with art, for instance.
Yet the so-labelled three levels of abstraction in software engineering always held a fascination for me.
When founding my own software factory in the early noughties, I realised pretty much instantly how different coders tended to both prefer and give their best working on one particular level. To recognise this certainly aided workflow, personal development and client delivery.
In a nutshell, the three levels can be summed up as physical, logical & view. Also known as internal, conceptual & external.
We've a similar frame in solution selling.
Think of the micro, macro and process.
Micro concerning the specific tactics of conversational, transactional sales nous.
Macro being where we are in relation to how the overall bid is progressing.
Process being the levers of the underlying repeatable, sustainable, practically guaranteeing we uniquely prevail, pattern of actions and events.
To truly be a superstar, you must navigate all three in one.
I think it fair to say that anecdotally, most people when selling are considered to be overwhelming consumed with what here I term the micro.
The here-and-now is paramount. Forcing through any agreement in that given moment. The drive of 'hooks, lines and clinchers', derided by the likes of Miller and Heiman.
Such sales skill is important. Yet it pales in the light of deal management.
You needn't be playing '4-D chess'. But you do need to know where you are in the grand scheme of things. What's the map look like that gets you from start to finish (and beyond)? Where are you on it? Where's your next stop?
Which in turn is all irrelevant if you are not thinking in process terms. Without this, you are doomed to hop from deal to deal. Haphazardly bouncing from feast to famine. Likely scrambling around to scrape over the line of your target too many periods for comfort. A method which a winning salesperson it does not make.
Remember, a process is yours. And yours alone. It is not (wholly) someone else's. It is not some tabs and screens of a crm. It is not the edicts of a big-ticket consultancy or trainer rubric. It is not what you or your boss did at the last outfit.
It is unique primarily to you. Then your company. And then your product.
Just like for coders - who let's not forget, can now we are told get an AI bot to produce pristine code for them at the speed of a click - the best salespeople can operate across, through and at all three levels, simultaneously.
How far from this are you?
“One particular talent stands out among the world-class programmers I’ve known—namely, an ability to move effortlessly between different levels of abstraction.” — Donald Knuth