CIO Talk Radio Blog

New technologies mean that businesses have had to think through the nature of a sales event.It is traditional, per Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross, to think of a salesperson as the one who precipitates an event, and the event has been conceived as the face-to-face encounter of a nimble-tongued sophist (whether a Socrates or a Thrasymachus) and a prospect. The sales event was thought of as analogous to a point on a line, with particular emphasis on the “close,” the supreme importance of this instant. But today’s technologies have brought about a revolution in information—making it more abundant, yes, but also more available. And there is no longer a sales event proper (as there is, for instance, a gunshot in a Conan Doyle tale). Furthermore, it is unhelpful to remain in the habit of thinking in terms of such an event.

There is irrefutable evidence that companies cannot flourish without integration of IT and sales-force functions.  According to Peter Ostrow (Research Director for Sales Effectiveness, Aberdeen Group), “Companies that use co-browsing or screen-sharing solutions within their sales organizations typically see about 73% attainment of the annual sales quotas (as against 60% for companies that do not use it) ….Companies that use real-time Web visitor tracking have representatives that hit their numbers annually 54% of the time (as against 40% for companies that do not use this technology)” (33:30-34:41). It isn’t just that sales people need good, relevant information readily available while making the sale.  Good sales is much more than persuasively informing a prospect, and it is not the art of mastering a discrete relationship, that of the sales situation.  What is not sufficiently appreciated is that sales efforts are contextual and that IT plays a major role in context formation.