Applying Occam's Razor To Sales

My challenge in this article is to simplify the sales process.?Yes, I am an advocate of using a sales process such as IMPACT, IMPAX, Sandler, or several others. I am also convinced that left to myself, I will complicate my Value Proposition beyond what is required.?

Instead of making the simple complicated, perhaps we should make the complicated simple.?Let’s apply the idea of Occam’s razor.?

Occam’s Razor – a principle attributed to the 14th century Franciscan friar, William of Ockham – states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in your hypothesis.?

This can be paraphrases as “Curt, all things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” Now, I fully respect the fact that we, who are in sales, are creative or technical in nature.?In fact, we win most of our sales opportunities because we are more creative or technical, solving our customer’s problems with both the breadth of products and services recommended blended with our historical sales expertise and depth of understanding.?

So, applying Occam’s razor to a Value Proposition of Issue ==> Action ==> Impact let’s strive for the simplest solution:?

• Issue – What is the challenge/problem our prospect or customer is facing? Delivery? Quality? Service? Price??Using Occam’s razor how can we boil it all down to identifying the simple PAIN they are facing?
• Action – What simple action(s) are we recommending that will solve the challenge/problem we have uncovered?
• ?Impact – In the eyes of the prospect/customer, can the IMPACT of our ACTION address the ISSUE (challenge/problem) in such a way that no other option, incumbent, or competitor can do it better?

Using the simplicity of Occam’s razor, “Mr/Mrs Customer, all other things being equal, my recommended ACTION is the best to IMPACT the ISSUE (challenge/problem) we’ve discussed."