Lone wolf in retreat

There are moves afoot for a new age of selling, as lone-wolf techniques give way to strategies that engage the whole firm’s expertise. Data analysis by Deloitte strategists Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed, summarised in April 2013's Harvard Business Review, confirms that businesses struggling for profit should focus on increasing revenue rather than reducing costs. Taking the pair's comments as the premise for its own white paper, Australian boutique sales consultancy Banjar Group says sales team effectiveness is the next frontier for expanding firms.

Banjar says accountants will play a key role in the revamped sales process. And at the same time, accountancy practices using

this new sales approach will be able to increase the value of services they provide – without necessarily charging more – hence lifting levels of client engagement.

Banjar argues for a changed view of who does the selling. Although it sees the number of dedicated sales staff falling, it predicts the number of people within an organisation who contribute to the sales process will increase. For instance, a larger proportion of staff will contribute sales leads.

Banjar suggests a future six years from now where staff who don’t even consider themselves to be salespeople are driving sales growth through their broad expertise and their understanding of clients’ needs. This approach, Banjar argues, will lead existing and prospective clients to

approach a firm for its perceived expertise, “business intelligence’ and the problem solving capabilities of its staff.

In Banjar’s new world, incentives are based on sales behaviours and contributions to long-term customer value from staff who work effectively across the organisation. The ‘lone wolf salesperson is long gone, as is a simple focus on hitting sales targets. Bestselling American author Daniel Pink raises similar ideas in his latest book, To Sell is Human. Like the Banjar authors, he believes the individual sales star fed by motivational talk – the lone wolf – will soon become an endangered species.

Pink mounts convincing arguments that all of us are born to sell. Doctors sell patients on a course of treatment; lawyers seIl juries on a particular verdict; entrepreneurs sell venture capitalists; teachers sell students on the idea of paying attention in class now for a better chance in life later. In fact, most people sell every day, even if they’re selling non-cash items.

Pink proposes a future where sales – between different areas of the same business and even between yer and seller — is a far more collaborative process. He suggests that for most markets nowadays, there is so much information available to buyers that it's = case of “seller beware”, with knowledgeable buyers looking for deeper engagement with the seller, not facts and figures.

And while good salespeople may well be skilled problem-solvers who can convince customers, Pink's central thesis is that the ability to “move others” to our way of thinking will hinge less on problem-solving and more on problem-finding. After all, if a customer can identify their problems, they can usually find their own solutions.

Accountants, as trusted business advisers, are in a unique position to prove their worth to clients by identifying problems and working towards solutions. All that's needed is to view sales as a collaborative process. It's selling, but not as we know it.

Pink also outlines a “secret ingredient”, extracted from a 1970 essay on leadership by Robert Greenleaf, at the time an AT&T mid-level executive, who suggested that most people are motivated to do good first and other rewards are secondary.

Pink re-phrases this concept into questions along these lines: Will the world be a better place for the transaction taking place? Is there an altruistic benefit for the seller as well?

He contends that this collaborative sales focus can be achieved by shifting the pay scale for sales staff away from “making a quick buck' and directing it towards helping customers – and potential customers.

Although Pink does not address accountants specifically, the implication of his thinking is that firms will fare better and have more satisfied clients when they aspire to proactively help their clients, rather than just earning fees.

Focus: Executives selling staff short

The easy revenue that Australian businesses enjoyed in the last boom has ended, leaving inadequately prepared sales staff reporting to managers who don't see sales and customer service skills as furthering their own careers.

Last year, Tony Gleeson, chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM), reported that discussions with senior executives had left him concerned about the sales culture in Australia. "It's clear that sales and customer service skills are not the focus they should bein some organisations," he wrote.

Gleeson asked his organisation to survey nearly 1,000 executives to determine the extent of what he termed the "sales culture crisis".

AIM's Sales Culture survey found a clear majority of CEOs and board members (88 per cent) and business owners (73 percent) believed their companies sales performance had been "very poor to average". And while most junior managers agreed (54 percent), the urgent need to lift sales performance has not yet filtered down fully.

Furthermore, on the list of skills they viewed as helping to advance their careers, survey participants ranked 'sales and customer service second last (10 per cent support). Heading this list were leadership development (46 per cent), creative thinking and problem-solving (43 per cent) and strategic planning (36 per cent).

No wonder sales culture standards are so worryingly low, if managers and leaders don't believe that sales and customer-service skills are important in climbing the corporate ladder.

The work by AIM also raised concerns about the merits of sales professionals reporting to general managers who lack sales management experience. How can such general managers provide effective guidance and supervision of sales professionals? There are lessons here for business advisers about running their own practices and directing clients towards more profitable strategies.

"In well-run organisations, there's an ongoing, company-wide focus on sales," says Gleeson. "There's an expectation — if not an obligation-that non-sales executives will be doing what's required to work co-operatively with and support the efforts of salespeople. Everyone in the organisation sells —whether they know it or not."