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Last week, I posted this article in reference to an Inc. Magazine article that was way off base about Consultative Selling. It led to a significant number of comments with one of them being this question:

“Dave, in your opinion, with all the training that is available and has been delivered to sales people over the years, how come sales people still fail at executing an effective approach to qualifying a prospect. Forget what we want to call the approach. Just basic fundamentals like asking questions. This is known throughout the selling universe but sales people still suck at this. How come?”

I’ve seen this happen in youth baseball so many times. Let’s say it’s a ground ball and the third baseman boots it for an error. Of course, the next ball is hit right at the third baseman again and this time he fields it cleanly, but makes an error on the throw. And just as if it were programmed to happen, the third baseman is suddenly a target, balls coming at him and him alone, as he appears helpless and unable to make a clean play to put a merciful end to an inning. You could say he has been busy, but not very successful.

According to FreeDictionary.com, the original definition of Methodology is, “the theoretical analysis of the methods appropriate to a field of study or to the body of methods and principles particular to a branch of knowledge.” Over time, the definition has changed and one present day version is, “A body of practices, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline.”

As part of its sales force evaluation process, Objective Management Group (OMG) conducts a pipeline analysis and determines both the quality of the pipeline and the quantity of the pipeline. We ask each salesperson to submit 4 proposal-ready opportunities and then we run the analysis.