Let’s set the stage… 

Bear with me a moment as I share some career history. I promise there’s a point at the end – just stick with me.  

I’ve been in the sales performance improvement business since 1991. I’ve had titles including sales training, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales transformation, sales performance development and sales management development.  

As an employee, I’ve worked in entertainment, advertising specialties, B2C/B2B financial services, B2C/B2B insurance, high-tech, software, pharmaceutical, med-tech, hospitality, meetings and convention services.  

I worked for a top 20 sales training company to develop and implement a course for them, prior to SPARXiQ, where – in addition to strategic pricing and sales analytics services – we also develop sales and management training.  

As a consultant, I did work for companies in high-tech, SaaS, manufacturing, document management, packaging and assembly, telecommunications and office equipment. And now, I’ve been at SPARXiQ for just over four years, working primarily in wholesale distribution.  

Through my experience, I became familiar with the many sales nuances – B2C/B2B, tangible/intangible, product/service, long-cycle/short-cycle, high-ticket/low-ticket, inside sales/outside sales and direct/channel sales. I understand new business development, opportunity management and strategic account management in those various nuances and vertical industries.  

Why do I share this?  

Because there is a lesson that I didn’t expect to learn but did anyway.  

“Selling is not the same everywhere.”  

This is very different than the “sales is sales is sales” message that some spread. Yes, if you go up high enough in an airplane, even the most complex terrain looks like little circles and rectangles. It’s the same with selling. There’s awareness, interest, relationships, explorations, decisions and purchases. It’s these patterns that allow us to develop and align sales process to buying process and move our products and services.  

But when you get down to the street level, it’s not the same across all distributors. While the concepts and skills (the sales methodology) are relatively the same, the real difference is in how you apply those concepts and skills.  

The Necessary Nuances for Sales Success 

To better illustrate this, let’s imagine you are a seller in the below scenarios, using sales discovery skills. I refer to this as a Situation Assessment with COIN-OP, which stands for Challenges, Opportunities, Impacts, Needs, Outcomes and Priorities. This is the discovery methodology we teach in our Modern Sales Foundations program.  

This framework can be applied to a very deep, consultative analysis, or a faster, higher-level transactional analysis. You can flex it and adapt to the situation (often referred to as situational fluency). Here are two examples.  

Scenario 1: Counter Sales, Simple, Transactional 

A customer walks into a branch, inquiring about cordless impact wrenches. You sell various tools from Milwaukee, DeWalt and Ingersoll Rand. Some sellers might just offer the Milwaukee because of the spiff on that unit, and because they know it’s a good tool. Or, someone like you who wants to provide real value might ask about: 

• The Type of Work: The work being performed (examples: automotive, heavy plant maintenance, construction projects, scaffolding, etc.).  
• The Application: The way the tool will be used on the job (environment, projects, constant vs. intermittent, etc.) 
• Battery Requirements: Average length of use between charging times (could determine a recommendation for one tool over another, or the purchase of multiple batteries).  

This discovery will allow you to consider the needed power, breakaway torque, size, speed, chuck type required, battery requirements and other factors known to an expert, and then recommend the best options to your customer. During the discussion, you may even learn about the context of the current project(s), and uncover a need for other things you can provide (one-stop shop; preferred provider).  

See the power? (Pun intended.) Simple and transactional do not mean rushed or poorly done, do they? The Situation Assessment with COIN-OP, even done at a high-level for this type of sale, is a powerful differentiator and ensures Need And Solution Alignment (NASA). Plus, the expertise and guidance provided could certainly earn you preference as a supplier when something else arises. There are many positive possible outcomes that branch out from an outstanding customer experience.  

Scenario 2: Engineered Solution, Complex, Consultative 

Now, imagine you are creating a digital twin for a series of industrial high-capacity chemical pumps. You are working with technical experts from an industrial Internet of Things (IoT) systems partner, an edge computer/sensor vendor, mechanical and electrical engineers from partners, your company and the client, the plant management team, and the client’s COO and CFO. It’s a bespoke solution in the high six-figure range, possibly seven. There is a lot more at stake, and it requires a far more detailed understanding of the current and desired future states. This will require more time, more questions, “peeling the onion” to get to root causes, and taking purposeful steps to understand multiple perspectives.  

You will still use the Situation Assessment with COIN-OP from above, but the details have now increased by a factor of 100 and the situation requires a partnered team of solution providers to serve a large buying committee. It’s also no longer a counter-conversation where you’ll remember everything easily, is it? You’ll need a system to capture what you learn, so you can review, absorb, analyze and share it effectively with others.  

Then, in addition to documenting the two states with COIN-OP, understanding the deep business and technical requirements, and co-creating a workable solution, there is a business case development with cost-benefit analysis. There’s also likely a prototype process with a pilot, pilot review and analysis and eventually, if all goes well, an implementation phase with monitoring and maintenance.  

This sales process will require: 

• Deeper discovery skills (an extended Situation Assessment) 
• Expert navigation of the buyer landscape 
• Outstanding process management (satisfying buying process exit criteria for a large team of buyers) 
• Great call planning and sales meeting management 
• Strong qualification and Need And Solution Alignment (NASA) at every stage
• Building strong relationships with a high degree of trust, as you co-create solutions with your client and a team of experts.  

As a seller, you will need to be like an orchestra conductor (who occasionally also plays an instrument). You will be a facilitator.  

Same Stuff, Different Way 

Now, looking closely at the complex Scenario 2 example, not all those opportunity management skills are required for the Scenario 1 simple sale, are they? Especially not navigating a complex buyer landscape.  

Yet, the Situation Assessment with COIN-OP, NASA, qualifying, satisfying exit criteria for at least one person (what the buyer needs to see, hear, feel, understand and believe to move to the next step), and establishing trust (earned through your servant leadership and buyer-centric approach), all apply to both scenarios. They are just done differently, to different depths.  

So, now we can say…  

“Selling is not the same everywhere. But it is similar.”  

The difference is context. Based on your judgment of the situation and its nuances, you adapt to apply the right skills in the most effective way.  

If you manage a sales force that sells in multiple scenarios, like the two examples above, this is how you can use a single methodology and just adapt and apply it appropriately. You simply teach and coach your teams to transfer, adapt, and apply what they have learned, to the situation at hand (situational fluency).  

It’s rare that an individual seller would find themselves in both situations above, but there may be nuances and levels in their environment that require an adaptive approach, even in their world.  

An example of this would be speaking the language of an individual buyer, based on whether they have: 

• Business value drivers (interested in financial or operational outcomes) 
• Aspirational value drivers (aligning with mission, vison and values) 
• Experiential value drivers (improving processes, practices, procedures and experiences) 
• Personal needs (things that impact their career, role, success, compensation, personal life or how they feel).  

This “multilingual” messaging capability allows sellers to speak about the same solution, or its related features and benefits, differently, with buyers who care about different things. This may apply to a simple transactional sale of an impact wrench, or the complex, consultative sale of a digital twin design. Same concept; done to different depths.  

Closing Thoughts 

In an article, this is a deep as we can go, with the examples above and using the Situation Assessment. But you can think about situational fluency and adaptive selling approach across your entire customer lifecycle and sales methodology.  

In each stage of your sales process, with your methodology, you can maximize the sales interactions by simply adapting your approach appropriately.  

No one in your company should be more prepared to do this than your front-line sales managers. Once they understand the concepts in this article, with their experience, they are uniquely qualified to help your sellers connect dots, adapt and apply their sales skills in context. If you give them the time to assess their reps’ ability and coach to ensure mastery, you will soon be maximizing all sales interactions at your company.  

Side note: This is how front-line sales managers can become a force-multiplier for your company. 

Well, that’s it for today. If you’d like to dig in deeper or talk about these concepts, reach out and let me know. If this article helps you in any way on your journey toward improved sales effectiveness, please also feel free to share. I’d enjoy hearing about your successes.