Don’t Buy the Hype. Study the Principles.

A long, long time ago, customer-relationship management software was the answer to better sales results. The fact that salespeople could have access to all customer information in one place was going to massively improve sales results.

Ask anyone today the percentage of deals they win because they use a customer relationship software program and they aren’t likely to understand the question.

Every couple of years a new sales process brings to light some truth about sales that hasn’t yet been widely considered critical. These processes always contain a truth, and that truth is touted as the panacea for what ails the sales organization.

The truth is valuable. But missed quotas and poor results persist nonetheless.

Social selling was (and is) going to kill all other prospecting methods. Anyone crazy enough to actually pick up the phone and call their prospective client was (and is) going to be laughed right off the line. This revolutionary approach was (and is) going to build a pipeline, and everyone who adopts social is going to make their quota.

“Above the funnel” activity is important, and the social tools have value. But social selling did not (has not) lived up to the hype.

Now, some are suggesting SnapChat as a serious B2B play. Young people love it. They spend more time there than any other platform, and that makes it a vehicle to access their market. You don’t want to show up late to the gold rush.

Teenage children aren’t known for their undying loyalty to the things they love as teenagers. Ask your daughters between the ages of 16 and 18 if they want you to buy them tickets to the One Direction concert. They’ve moved on.

Fashion changes. The “now” thing doesn’t often hold. The “new” thing is hyped, and the old “now” thing fades.

What underlies all of this hype is real and true. There is a principle worth observing, and principles last. New technologies come along that enhance our ability to communicate. They help us fill the top of the funnel and make our jobs as sales professionals easier. But they don’t change the core principles of sales.

Don’t buy the hype. Just study the principles.