The Exciting Future of Sales

Preparing Salespeople Today For The Future of Sales Tomorrow

Author: Harrison

I write a blog called The Future of Sales. Its purpose is to offer relevant and helpful content about sales in the second decade of the 21st century.

Air Traffic Control Taught Me Sales Success

As an Air Traffic Controller in the United States Air Force I learned the truth about sales success, although I didn’t realize it until years later.

If you are familiar with the military or the Federal Aviation Administration, you know that their success is achieved through strict adherence to well thought out processes. They know that the processes they have established will bring success as long as everyone follows them. Deviation is not an acceptable practice.

Air Traffic Control is a prime example. All Controllers throughout the world, military or civilian, are taught the rules of air traffic control. These rules require strict adherence because the safety of passengers and crew members is dependent on established procedures. These rules apply throughout the aviation world. Failure to follow them can only result in tragedy. Pilots rely on adherence to these established procedures and are obligated to follow them unless they declare an emergency. Otherwise, failure to follow the rules by either an air traffic controller or a pilot mandates an Operational Hazard Report. Repeated violations can result in loss of a job and, sometimes, the end of a career.
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A Morning in the Life of a Top Performing Sales Representative in 2020

Step into the future for a moment. It might be the most fascinating experience you have had as a sales manager or representative.

Your day begins at 7:00 AM in your home office when you log into your assigned tasks for the day. The first thing you notice is the weather and the travel time to your first appointment that afternoon.   Your daily agenda is printed out for you along with the completion log that is electronically distributed to your colleagues.

You have no assigned sales manager because you are your own manager. The System, affectionately known as “Lulu”, automatically coaches you on your missed opportunities and the information you need to gather from a variety of contacts relevant to the opportunities awaiting your attention. You are primed and ready to roll by 8:00 AM.

08:00 – Lulu asks you if you are ready to begin your first task for the day. Since you are not ready, Lulu verbally lets you know that this has been noted and asks when you will be ready. You state in 5 minutes. At 8:05 Lulu gives you another prompt and begins to describe the first challenge you must meet today. That challenge is to get into contact with a person who is the buyer at one of your opportunities to learn who is responsible for making a decision on the $5M purchase of the services you have proposed. Lulu asks if you are ready to begin and when you say ‘yes’, Lulu suggests that you read the latest news it has for you about the changes in top management at the company you need to know about before she connects you with Mary Jane, the person with whom you need to speak. Continue reading “A Morning in the Life of a Top Performing Sales Representative in 2020” →

Is There a Future for Sales People As We Know Them Today

This is a question that companies of all sizes need to wrestle with now.  While some companies are facing this head on, the majority seem to have adopted the famous ostrich act.

We recently posed this question on Linked In and received some interesting comments.  But this comment, by Brian Hasenbauer at Lead G2, was particularly prescient:

Brian Hasenbauer

Great rephrasing of the question – “Is there a future for Sales People as we know them today?”… my answer, NO. UNLESS, they have already embraced modern technology such as marketing automation, sales enablement and have come to the conclusion that warm leads trump cold calls. That’s the salesman of the future. The smart phone carrying, CRM using, marketing automation guru that uses lead intelligence to no longer make “cold calls” but “smart calls”… They understand and embrace technology, not hide behind their land lines phones and robo-dialers or direct mail pieces. We can do better than that as an industry.”

Brian is in a position to know.  As Inbound Marketing and Sales Consultant at Lead G2, Brian works daily with those companies who know that they must put very warm inquiries into the hands of Top Producing Sales People.

Continue reading “Is There a Future for Sales People As We Know Them Today” →

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