I sometimes wonder how salespeople dealt with innovation 100
years ago. Did they see the telegraph and telephone as significant
advances that would change the nature of sales? Did they
jump on the new technology or were they afraid of it?
In many respects the introduction of the telephone and
telegraph more than a century ago aren’t really very much different
than the introduction of e-mail and faxes in our time.
Both the telegraph and telephone changed the way and the
speed with which people communicated, they didn’t change
what was communicated. The fact is that while the tools of the
sales process often changed over the years, the process itself
has not. You still have to find and validate prospects. You still
have to gather information to figure out what it will take to get
your prospects to get up off their, uh, desk chair, and change
the way they do business. And then you have to present your
findings in a way that convinces them and their colleagues to
sign on to whatever product or service you’re selling.