Renaissance Seller

If someone calls you a Renaissance Man or Woman, then they imply you're a person with expertise in more than one area.

I've seen this concept also apply the label, 'Ultimate'.

There's an old joke I've heard too. Unsurprisingly from female comics.

'Never trust a man who tells you he's an expert in more than one thing'.

Perhaps alluding to the rarity of talent being possessed in more than one field.

Think of the exceptions that prove the rule in the showbiz world. The number of superb actors that are also fantastic singers or musicians is truly tiny. Imagine too the vaunted 'triple threat'. Those rare entertainers that can sing, dance and act.

I am reminded of the research that reveals Nobel science prize winners with an interest away from the lab with some degree of proficiency in the arts, are 2.85-times more likely to become laureates than those whose life solely revolves around wearing the white coat.

Does the same principle apply in solution selling?

Well, I think so, yes.

If you've a passion for an arena that whilst feeling unrelated, can specifically help you be seen as distinct from competition, then you can certainly make yourself three-times more likely to succeed than those around you.

I think about my own current sales focus.

My own coronavirus enforced 'rebirth' (the meaning of the French word, renaissance).

My exposure to what is the now all of a sudden what economists refer to as the GPT (General Purpose Technology) of video calling has grown since first encounters in 1998.

My Enterprise Sales experience goes back even farther. Now three decades in the making.

Neither is a subset of the other.

Yet today, draw the venn diagram and the niche space where these two circles intersect is - I am delighted to discover for me - a truly unique offering for those who realise what their selling skillset needs to incorporate to shine.

I can also consider those areas where I have both seen in others and demonstrated myself just such a separate field make an incredible difference to selling numbers.

Learning to code a little, adapting report-writers (aka data warehousing & BI), bringing in elements of graphic design, using strategic management tool framings, and even (whisper it) mapping prospect ambitions with marketing ratios and quasi-accounting curves.

I can hear a conversation between vendor and buyer. The potential client subtly, maybe unknowingly, reveals a buying signal with the query, 'so what do you outside of work?'

You could trot out the typical. Sport, cooking, gardening, music, jigsaw-puzzling.

Meh.

Whilst these examples are not entirely without noteworthiness, what would it say about you if you had something beyond the norm to talk about?

It might involve creativity in some other pursuit. Or decision-making rubrics. Or an emerging field of thought, such as behavioural science (what practitioners tongue-in-cheek call BS).

Dilbert cartoon creator Scott Adams began the movement to call this kind of thinking 'developing your talent stack'.

Yet in the first instance you needn't go for any more than one extra topic.

To cite London broadsheet The Telegraph journalist Ed Cummings this week, when commenting on the superb leadership of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and his slick media operation;

"Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him, with the caveat that they would prefer not to be under constant bombardment. Regular blokes cursed their luck. All that time wasted on self-improvement, when it turns out that all women want is a handsome comedian-turned-war-hero president with a law degree who can dance."

We mere mortals can at least settle for picking one competence outside of our nine-to-five to impress our prospects.

I guess at present, my own answer would be that my prime specialism is in showing business people how to get what they want from video meetings.

Focused for those involved in Enterprise Sales.

Lasered in on anyone who values diagrammatic expression, the joy of theatre, and perhaps above all, the power of process.

And with that, I'm proud to be Renaissance Seller.

How are you taking your world into a new place?