I chuckle (and throw up in my mouth a little) when I see, read or hear the sales industry using all the big boy/girl words (buzzwords) to re-label the most basic concepts of selling.
You know, words and phrases like, sales enablement, pipeline management, disruptive, alignment, pivot, close ratio or customer win ratio, and on and on.
Selling is, always has been, and forever will be these few, key, simple things:
Know your product/service, what problem it solves and who it best serves.
Know how to communicate the specific value it brings to the problem they are trying to solve.
Connect with a potental buyer, have a good initial conversation, and determine whether or not they are a good fit for what you're selling, and if you can, in fact solve their problem.
Ask great questions to find out what they value most, and work hard to help them get it (or give it to them), preferably via your product/service.
Connect the dots for them to help them see how exactly your product/service will solve their problem.
Ask them to make a decision (if you do the previous steps right, they should be asking you).
Fulfill on the promise and take care of the customer after the sale.
Selling really does NOT have to be any harder than that. If it is, you may want to get back to the basics, because that's always where the answers lie. Blocking and tackling. Fundamentals.
I believe if salespeople and sales leaders would spend as much time actually selling, as they do pontificating and creating new terms to label what they don't clearly undersatnd, they could achieve the consistent sales growth to which they aspire.
What do you think? Am I oversimplifying, or do we all need to get back to the basics of selling? Let me know with a comment.