Why T@#!s Is A Dirty Word In Sales

There's long been the trope for commercial sellers of the Sales Prevention Department.

Candidates are legion.

My personal first experience in the craziness was twofold.

Strangulation from (software) development. More concerned with what they thought technically exciting. Instead of what the marketplace was telling us in Sales was what they actually needed.

Limitation from marketing efforts. Failure to pinpoint or engage our sweet spot. Valuing supposedly 'clever' straps over focus on our niche.

Many beyond these shackles speak with a chill about restrictions imposed by Finance, or stipulations thwarting decent delivery.

The deadly duo of drag anchors of our time emerge from departments mistakenly under the impression that they know better than those that provide for the revenue that pays their wages.

HR the obvious contender. Misdirected activism all too often pursued over genuine blanket betterment from getting actual work done.

IT not far behind. All of a sudden self-appointed as the sole authority on things 'new normal' workflow.

Not all sales enterprise is duly afflicted, thankfully. But when such misfires touch upon us, times are a worry.

It is from our tech colleagues' resurgence in trying to dominate how the cogs turn that can wreak most mutilation to crafting our sales output.

IT so broad a discipline its similarities to science are stark.

We all know the battering scientists posing as 'expert' has caused us lately.

So what makes IT pros feel they can dispense infallible dictums from anywhere on their spectrum?

Spoiler alert; they ought not.

Consider the anachronym safari.

AI, ML, AR, VR, RPA, NFT, DLT, IOT, 6G, 3DP.

And more besides these ten.

Such as actual words du buzz.

Quantum, Immersive, Mesh, Web3, Fintech, Datafication, No-Code, Blockchain, Nanotech, Remote.

Knowledge in one does not necessarily confer command of another.

Solution selling idylls are no different. Specifically here, how we best converse with our prospects.

It took almost two years, yet the mass corporate adoption of Microsoft's Office automation suite 365 eventually led to the overwhelming default of Teams for video calls.

This is a travesty.

Teams is fundamentally not designed for vendor-buyer discourse.

In fact, I suggest you can gauge a sales outfit's true selling aptitude by the tool they elect to use when videoing prospects.

If it's Teams, then how serious about selling can they really be?

Video platform choice is a proxy metric.

One which betrays true focus on customer perspective.

Again, if you send Teams invites out, you are substantially undermining your selling efforts. Potential client ability to fully get across their issues with you plummet.

IT often describe Teams as "free".

This is a fallacy.

Yet is all consuming right now.

And feels destined to continue to be so.

No sales-facing 'windoze' development will ever arrive to help us.

Our only rescue is to use alternatives.

Alongside - full disclosure; I have skin in this game - brushing up on your video conferencing skills.

You embrace these pair?

So. How happy are you meeting on video is winning you deals?