In reviewing a few of my favourite conversations on LinkedIn, I came across the following from a comment made by Peter Johnston, who lives in the UK.
With the changes we are seeing in sales and marketing, the past definitions of what is a sales person seem to have fallen out of date (and out of favour). The days of hunter/farmer and closer are gone.
This is what Peter had to say and it’s worth repeating:
“Salespeople are not just closers – they have powerful skills in putting prospects into play, helping them define the problem, choose their criteria and evaluate the benefits and costs of a solution. They also handle the human aspects of a sale including working with multiple decision makers and company hierarchies. Salespeople need to be involved in every part of the lead generation process, not just providing the pen to sign the purchase order.
… It is time we challenged the unwritten rule that salespeople can only communicate face to face or on the telephone.”
I am of the opinion that in Business to business selling the sales people who are not interested in searching out the broadest possible definition of their valuable skills and business responsibilities will soon find themselves without a place at sales/marketing table.