This might sound odd – how can something be both science and art? My many years of selling and sales leadership tell me that both are important, however.
Cultivating relationships, developing compelling proposals and presentations, these things are artful. Some people are just wonderful at developing relationships and earning trust from customers and clients. Their personality shines through during interactions and the old saw of “people buy from people” is not entirely wrong.
However, the science of sales calls upon process and data. This is true for the sales manager but also for the sales person. A good salesperson is excellent at relationships. An excellent salesperson is also excellent at managing the territory, understanding where he/she is in the sales cycle, using the tools at hand (CRM system etc.)
The sales manager relies on this data. The sales manager needs to understand yield (how many deals actually close from the pipeline), coverage (how many deals do we NEED in order to make target given expected yield), velocity (how fast do our deals of a certain size close) and all the varieties of the above in different geographies and territories.
Sales is a science…and an art. That’s what makes it so much fun!
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