Welcome to the Science of Selling. Science and selling?? Yes, The Scientific Method concept was used to develop our sales model. Science is based on building and organizing knowledge to prove or disprove theories. An exact science is just that, until someone comes along and improves, or disproves, the logic.
While launching specialty healthcare services in several major cities across the US, we needed a plan. As with many growing companies, working on the fly did not allow much time for strategic planning. We did have some ideas of how to produce growth, so we started constructing and testing a hypothesis.
In a typical application of the scientific method, a researcher develops a hypothesis, tests it through various means, and then modifies the hypothesis on the basis of the outcome of the tests and experiments. The modified hypothesis is then retested, further modified, and tested again, until it becomes consistent with observed phenomena and testing outcomes. In this way, hypotheses serve as tools by which scientists gather data. From that data and the many different scientific investigations undertaken to explore hypotheses, scientists are able to develop broad general explanations, or scientific theories.
As one of the pioneers in our industry, we applied this concept across several geographies of the United States. We would ask questions to gain basic knowledge and make hypotheses about certain accounts or sales results. After achieving success in a few markets, we realized that a pattern was occurring. We would obtain data around four key factors that seemed consistent across each location. Detail oriented data collection of (I) our services, (II) current and potential customers, (III) competitive landscape, and (IV) the all-encompassing marketplace.
Going through the four essentials of sales success, we hit on a proper sales formula, and the Science of Sales was formed.
Comments