Eliminating Waste in the Sales Processes

Salespeople go through training to learn how to handle/manage rejection which emphasizes how the process of selling is not only wasteful, but intentionally so.  Salespeople are expected to not close a large percentage of prospects.  This is why the weekday movie matinee is called the salesman's special.  Clever salespeople, or those without much motivation or poorly designed compensation plans, make a habit of picking the deals they are not going to close in advance and avoid spending time on them.

It is no wonder there is animosity between the engineers that make the products and the the salespeople that sell them.  The engineers are grinding out the products and the salespeople are overpaid to go to the movies.  Clearly this is sufficient motivation for the engineers to rebel and it is happening right before our eyes.

Google and Amazon and Apple and others have built their companies on the premise that sufficiently well engineered products don't need any salespeople at all.

CRM and SFA have not done much to address the issue.  In fact after 20 years of these revolutions spending on sales and marketing as a percentage of sales has not declined (gotten more efficient) at all.

Unless sales as a profession can come up with process improvements to match the productivity gains in the rest of the economy it could be at risk of wholesale replacement.