In Search Of The Holy Grail

Doesn't every CEO crave a sustainable competitive advantage? Companies striving to provide their salespeople with the "best" product and price face an objective fraught with challenges:

• Shrinking development cycles make product advantages difficult to sustain
• Discounting abounds in competitive situations

Even with the best product/price, competitive wins aren't guaranteed. The better salesperson usually prevails. Could the way salespeople sell be a sustainable competitive advantage by improving the customer experience? I believe it can but that three prerequisites are necessary:

1. Change your view of selling from convincing, persuading, etc. to empowering buyers to buy. People would rather buy than be sold.
2. Integrate sales and product training to allow salespeople to have conversations with business people about potential results of product usage that establish value. Failure to do so abdicates product positioning to salespeople, often resulting in "spray and pray" sales calls.
3. Align your sales processes with prospects' buying processes (see item 1).

I welcome your thoughts on sales as a sustainable competitive advantage and how:

• Your organization supports the concept
• You differentiate your selling approach from others