Consultative selling, Spin selling, Selling 2.0, Provocative selling, we’ve heard them all. But, are they innovative? Are they bringing anything new to the table. David Brock at Partners in Excellence Blog has been asking this question a lot. Innovation in Sales; An Oxymoron?

David makes an interesting point:

. . . with all the talk going on, when you peel everything back, have things really changed? Customers still avoid wanting to speak with sales people. We hear too much about sales people pushing products, not understanding customer problems and creating value, and the list goes on. Often, it seems to me, we are having the same conversation repeatedly. Sometimes we change the word or methodology, sometimes we add technology or tools so we can do this stuff at the speed of light, sometimes we disguise it with new buzzwords, but somehow it seems that things aren’t changing.

I think David is on to something. I often wonder the same thing. Is sales changing? Is sales being innovative. Is the profession and how we practice it growing? Has there been any innovation in sales in the past 50 years?

This is the next topic on Sales Smack tomorrow night at 7:00 EST. Jump in with us as we try to break down what is happening in sales and what is really happening to the second oldest profession in the world.

Sales Smack is an open forum where everyone get’s a chance to share their opinion. A live, open, conference call on TalkShoe, where we break down sales topics in an open podcast forum.

See you there.