World Class Selling: New Sales Competencies

Executive Summary

Sales is dead. Or rather, sales as we know it is dying. Much in the same way that old-fashioned bookkeeping gave way to finance and accounting and old-fashioned advertising was transformed into marketing, the old concept of sales is fading away and something new is emerging. Many call the new idea professional selling, yet even that term potentially limits the concept. It is not just about the transaction, or multiple transactions anymore.

Old-fashioned sales measured quota performance as the only indicator of true selling success, which is a bit like judging a doctor solely by the number of operations he or she performs. By contrast, professional selling gauges success not on whether quotas were met, but on the long-term ...