{"id":10615,"date":"2017-11-15T06:40:28","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T14:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.com\/blog\/?p=10615"},"modified":"2017-10-09T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T22:00:22","slug":"truth-cats-dogs-sales-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/truth-cats-dogs-sales-process\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Cats and Dogs … and Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This guest post by Chris Beall – CEO of ConnectAndSell originally appeared on LinkedIn. His opinions are his own.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like everything else since the advent of social media \u2014 and maybe since the invention of broadcast media \u2014 the question of how to structure and run a sales organization has become both a practical and a religious debate simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Inbound or outbound? One tier or two? Pooled or paired lead-generation resources? Lead based or account based? Call only after research, or let \u2019er rip?<\/p>\n

The practical debate shouldn\u2019t be a debate at all.<\/p>\n

We have this quaint process called \u201cscience\u201d that\u2019s really good at figuring out things like, \u201cWhat works better? A or B?\u201d\u00a0There really aren\u2019t many meaningful debates in science, at least not that last forever, because we have these things called experiments.<\/p>\n

Rather than arguing endlessly and calling each other names, scientists have come up with what many of us believe is a path to truth \u2014 the eponymous \u201cscientific method.\u201d You know the one, with the hypotheses and the experiments and the repeat-ability of results. It works for quaint stuff like how invisible electrons and massive galaxies work, and it\u2019s also good for understanding how our messy bodies work, plus why we have rain and earthquakes and such. Science even illuminates hard stuff, like our minds and our behavior.<\/p>\n

Why does the \u201cHow should we sell?\u201d debate go on and on?<\/h2>\n

Why doesn\u2019t it eventually get resolved by experiment? And anyway, isn\u2019t the experiment going on all the time? Shouldn\u2019t the \u201cright\u201d ideas about sales simply wipe out the \u201cwrong\u201d ones by superior performance? Natural experiments go on at scale, in parallel, every day. They are called companies! May the best sales theory win and put the other guy out of business!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting to me is that these debates are not driven by facts of the world.They can\u2019t be. Facts lead interested parties quickly toward the same conclusions. In cold places you see people wearing coats and boots, not bikinis and sandals. Sure, there might be a few who go around barefoot and in shorts for a while, but when the facts are clear enough, conclusions converge.<\/p>\n

In talking about sales, the conclusions never converge. In sales, some people are \u201call earmuffs and mukluks, all the time,\u201d and others are \u201ca little sunscreen and a pair of shorts, and I\u2019m good\u201d \u2014 whether we are talking about Fargo or Phoenix. In sales, the opinions about the \u201cright\u201d way to go about it stubbornly refuse to converge. The debate only seems to intensify, jumping from fad to fad as it does so, immune to facts and dismissive of the other side\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n

Compare and contrast<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Why? Why should there be sides at all? Of course, all fields \u2014 even accounting \u2014 have some ongoing discussions that lead to new and presumably better practices. But\u00a0the sales debate is simply stuck, looking more like religion or politics than it does like business.\u00a0I\u2019m not talking about top practitioners, by the way \u2014 those folks quietly go about the business of making sales and making money. I\u2019m talking about consultants, advisors, gurus, and tools vendors. (Fair warning: I\u2019m one of the latter, and you should discount everything I say accordingly!)<\/p>\n

The debate has exactly two sides \u2014 which is odd, given all the ways one could imagine approaching selling. I will, for the moment, not label the two sides. I\u2019ll just give some examples of their contrasting points of view:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo your research on the fly: have conversations and ask questions.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cConversations require preparation: research first, ask questions later.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cReps should prospect. How else will they control their results?\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cReps should never prospect. How will they have time to sell?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cSales is a contact sport. Get out there, get dirty, and mix it up!\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cSales is a finesse game. Set it up right, and the deals will flow!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cPick up the damned phone: if you don\u2019t talk to them, someone else will.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cDon\u2019t interrupt people: it\u2019s ineffective, rude, and demoralizing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I could go on and on. Perhaps I already have. If you are inside the debate, I bet you could name 10 brilliant people on your side and one or two idiots on the other side. And I\u2019ll bet further that you are very unlikely to think differently 10 years from now.<\/p>\n

Dog people vs cat people<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The truth is there are two basic approaches to life that seem to be there from early childhood. Maybe birth. They are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Dog people<\/strong>\u00a0(Act first and figure it out along the way.)<\/li>\n
  • Cat people<\/strong>\u00a0(Wait and watch, then act when the time is right.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u201cWait a minute,\u201d I hear you saying. \u201cWhere did these dogs and cats come from? I thought we were talking about sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s the mapping:\u00a0sales is, mathematically, hunting.\u00a0The starting state is \u201cempty stomach,\u201d success is \u201cfull stomach,\u201d and somewhere in between there is a process of finding and bringing down prey. And eating it.<\/p>\n

    Sales, done right, is good for both the individual hunter and the prey species \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t change the math. The hunter still needs to find suitable prey, engage that prey in space and time, and emerge from the engagement with a meal.<\/p>\n

    The modern pet dog and cat still have personalities built on how their ancestors and modern wild kin hunt. And those personalities reflect different ways of solving this ubiquitous and most important math problem: how to find, engage, and win often enough to avoid starvation.<\/p>\n

    Dogs hunt in packs. Legs plus stamina cover lots of terrain. Sharp eyes and untiring legs and lungs gather intelligence at the trot along the way; and noses read the past and tell the pack when the herd passed this way, in which direction, and how vulnerable the herd\u2019s weakest member is. If dogs don\u2019t run, dogs don\u2019t eat. The persona of their individual next meal is not particularly relevant; catching up to that meal in its moment of weakness is.<\/p>\n

    Cats hunt alone (except for the social cat \u2014 the lion). A cat scouts the terrain in advance, learning the habits of the herd, or even of an individual. Where do they eat? Where do they water? Where do they sleep? Then, research done, the cat chooses a likely time and place and waits. No point roaming the countryside like an idiot dog, running yourself ragged, and sniffing everything. Patience, my friend. Dinner is coming.<\/p>\n

    So, what if the \u201chow to sell\u201d debate is really a matter of style? It would be crazy to adopt both styles \u2014 running and gunning AND hiding and pouncing at the same time? No way that math works.<\/p>\n

    Is cold calling dead?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree. (Is that a leopard I smell up there?) But I must admit that the reactions to my LinkedIn\u00a0\u201cIf cold calling is dead\u2026zombies…\u201d post\u00a0of September 6, 2016, are any indication, this isn\u2019t exactly a rational matter. Cold calling might be something that only cold-nosed dogs can love, running endlessly over the landscape, sniffing out prospects.<\/p>\n

    No self-respecting cat would do anything so wasteful and stupid. (I am here borrowing a term used by some to describe both my \u201czombies\u201d post and, I suspect, its author.) There\u2019s plenty of inbound deer to support our sales leopards and cougars. You just need to do your research and hang out in the right spots.<\/p>\n

    What do you think?<\/p>\n

    Are we debating how sales really works? Or how it should work?<\/p>\n

    Or are we just cats and dogs, hissing and growling about two different ways of dealing with the world of prey?\u00a0Run or lurk? Hound or pounce?<\/p>\n

    And if it turns out to be all about cats and dogs, then what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why does the \u201cHow should we sell?\u201d debate go on and on? This post by ConnectAndSell CEO Chris Beall demystifies different approaches to the sales process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":10617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth About Cats and Dogs ... and The Sales Process<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why does the \u201cHow should we sell?\u201d debate go on and on? 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