Use Our 10-Point Checklist To Determine Your Sales Orientation

In our fast-changing age of diversity, technology and talent management, can a sales organisation continue with traditional didactic sales development “this is how you do it” style of training and gain any competitive advantage? As sales people increasingly aspire to be seen as business professionals, does the didactic approach have any relevance today?

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	Key Challenges
Hierarchical, Rigid silos	Sales Structures	Flatter, flexible networks
Position / Role	Status Attachment	Contribution
Command and Control	Management Style	Transformational, Empowerment
Focus on Outputs Results and KPIs	Work Style	Focus on Inputs, Value-adding activities
Transactional ‘how many do you want?’	Selling Style	Consultative ‘my advice would be’
Tactical focus on next period’s target	Planning Time Horizon	Strategic focus on long-term improvement
Supplier of products and services	Sales Orientation	Business Partner
Waits to be told what to do and how to do it	Learning Style	Open, Questioning, Challenging
Shoving in	Training Style	Drawing out
Adversarial Us and Them	View of Customer	Collaborative We’re in it together

Which side of the table is your sales organisation on?

In case you haven’t spotted the obvious; we believe that the traits described on the left-hand side of the table belong to the sort of organisation that favours the ‘didactic’ school of training and development for its sales people. The biggest problem with the didactic approach is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – the more of it you do – the more of it you need to do.

The characteristics in the right, we believe, are exactly those which will enable sales organisations to position themselves for the challenges of the 21st Century and lead the way in defining what a successful sales team can look like in a rapidly-evolving, increasingly competitive world.