WHAT TO DO WHEN SALES STRATEGIES BECOME FOSSILIZED

"A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence. Whoever looked on him would consent to his will, being certified that his aims were generous and universal. The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life

Traders employ a strategy called arbitrage. The practice involves the exploitation of price differences within markets. When the astute trader becomes aware of this type of opportunity they quickly employ strategies to maximize their profits. The effect of a mass of traders participating in an arbitrage creates the eventual extinction of the strategy as it no longer becomes profitable - it becomes ubiquitously arbitraged away. Traders are left looking for the next price arbitrage opportunity.

Sales strategies also go through a type of arbitrage extinction process. Try using Zig Ziglar's sales strategies and tactics from the 1970's today and see what happens. For a while Miller Heiman ruled, then solution selling was the rage, SPIN appeared revolutionary, Challenger Selling started picking up steam...what do these strategies have in common? When masses of people start doing the same things buyers become desensitized. After this starts happening sales strategies start becoming less effective.

We can't blame well intentioned sales consultants for the adoption and eventual extinction of their methodologies. It is a temporal property of all systems. Take sports for instance. Football has gone through phases where a mobile quarterback suddenly starts exploiting vulnerable defenses. For a while it's all the rage, and teams start looking for mobile quarterbacks as the future of the league. Once the defenses start to figure out what's going on, and build strategies to combat mobile quarterbacks, the strategy (arbitrage) starts becoming extinct.

What can companies and sales people do to combat the fossilization of their preferred strategy? Should fad strategies be ignored altogether? Strategies need two things to succeed. The resolve to execute and see the strategy through to completion - or a reasonable length of time to properly assess results. Secondly, strategies need to remain flexible and adapt accordingly.

More importantly, companies and sales people should spend more time on principle based practices. This would be the equivalent, to use a football analogy again, of focusing on the blocking and tackling basics of the game. In business, specifically selling, this involves focusing resources (time & money) to increasing one's knowledge base (competitors, industry trends, economic cycles, etc.) It also means working on things like presentation skills, confidence, listening, and asking questions. Additionally, honing in on things that can seem intangible such as presence, behaviors, and word usage will create long term value within yourself and organization.

Strategies will always remain useful, and the more strategies you've mastered and can summon at the right time, the more likely you are to win in business. Therefore, companies and their sales teams should spend time mastering principles (few companies do this), strategies (more companies do this), and tactics (most do this.) By focusing on the all three parts of a sales person's modus operandi, you can add a distinct layer of differentiation within your salesforce, that clients will appreciate.