Is it just me or are people going nuts?

Anyone can sound like an expert. Because blogs, tweets, marketing, and LinkedIn give you access to an audience, you can talk game, without ever having walked it. We need to make sure we are discerning what is wisdom (the measured walking out of gaining understanding and knowledge that only comes with experience) and when somebody is sharing their opinions on something they just learned about. The internet makes it hard to tell the difference.

I recently read a blog post saying marketers "developed" persona-based targeting, account-based selling needs to be more "prevalent", and sales is becoming more about "science" than art.

HUH? WHAT?!! Did I wake up in some alternate universe this morning? If your team hasn't been doing these things, what the heck have they been doing. I hate to rant (OK - maybe I like to rant a little), but I am literally having a physical/emotional reaction to parts of that post. 

Here's why. Effective sales people have sold in this highly targeted way since the beginning of time. It wasn't born from marketing...it's only not prevalent on bad sales teams...and if sales was mostly science, why hasn't someone figured it out yet (if we can discover and measure gravitational waves from blackholes colliding in distant galaxies, certainly we would have figured out sales by now).

There are those calling the tried and true, age-old techniques new school names like ABS, ABM, persona-based selling, etc., etc. I get that a term is useful to describe a complex methodology. I use those terms, too, because they are very descriptive and useful in conversation; however, I do not act like the underlying methodology is new, too, which is what I keep seeing people do. Just because it is new to you, doesn't mean it is new, right?

• The medieval peddler that went from shop to shop talking to the individuals running each was doing ABS/persona-based selling.
• The ol' west traveling salesman who arranged his wagon based on if gold miners, farmers, or cowboys were more prevalent in the town he/she was visiting wasn't an uncommon occurrence...it was common sense.
• The 1980s Wolf of Wall Street changed the pitch of his inside sales team based on who answered the phone at the home he was about to wreck.
• The modern day inbound sales rep - Wait....slam on the brakes....screeeeeeechhhhhh!!! Oops - those guys aren't doing it...or are just getting started, if their team is run by someone making statements like the ones at the beginning of this article.

Newer companies (mostly in high tech) started revenue generation on inbound leads processed through a funnel where leads already "pre-engaged" themselves, and therefore do not require any personalization. 95% of companies in America aren't nearly as inbound-reliant and certainly weren't built on inbound leads. That's why the industry leader in marketing automation, Marketo, has revenues of only $270mm.

Inbound is growing and is important to a healthy revenue generation strategy, and while salespeople born and raised in the inbound-only/cold-call-is-dead bubble have a unique perspective, it certainly is not a complete one that entitles them to engage with companies about comprehensive sales strategy.

It's easy to see why people with limited sales experience (in terms of years or breadth of selling situations) would say something like "marketing is leading the way in persona-based messaging". Their sales careers are in such an embryonic state that there is no understanding of how sales is done -- real deal salespeople not only understand this way of selling is table stakes to success, it is how they work everyday.

[End of Rant.]

I've been in sales almost 25 years. Sure, I want people to buy what I am selling, but I've also done this long enough to care about the other humans doing it with me. Sales is a craft requiring an artisan trained in its nuances and practiced in them. It takes constant up-leveling, learning, and work to stay even close to the top of the pile. There is a science aspect to the skill, but it is only an underlayment of the artistry required.

I think about the people and the families hurt by under-baked, naive sales advise. If, as Mike Weinberg postulates in the best sales book of all time, 95% of salespeople aren't good yet many seem to have a platform to speak from, we need to be careful. Thoughts like the 3 mentioned at the onset of this post shape philosophies, products, tools, and advise, and unfortunately, they show a general lack of sales experience and wisdom. 

I urge you to go find someone that has done sales for a long time, set up a regular call with them, show up (right, Marylou?), ask them what makes them great, let them help you vet all the sales noise going on right now, then go do what they tell you has worked for them...and the guy/gal that taught them.

Don't listen to the loudest voice. Oftentimes, the loud ones in the room are only loud because that's all they've got.