Sales, fundamentally, is about getting someone to respect your opinion (creating “status”). This is applicable in all kinds of situations, for example, in poker, getting someone to respect your bluff; in enterprise sales, getting the counterparty to respect you as the subject matter expert; in hiring, getting someone to believe that your judgement is worth following.
There are two main ways that you can get someone to respect your opinion: signaling that you know more than your counterparty (knowledge) and/or signaling that you’re someone worth respecting (craft).
The easiest way to signal that you know more than your counterparty is very straightforward - know more than your counterparty. Many deals and negotiations are won simply because one side has more knowledge than the other. This is why many CEOs or founders who don’t have much experience in the craft of sales can still do very well in sales. They typically have studied a market problem and its solutions much more than the people they’re selling to.
A way to manifest this one-sided knowledge power-dynamic is to sell a product to a market that is naturally less educated about a specific problem. For example, at FGX, we sell mission critical logistical services to IT organizations. IT organizations naturally don’t know much about the logistical field, which makes it easy to establish ourselves as the SME, which results in us having increased status and thus a higher % of closing deals.
(It is important to note that in situations where you know a lot more than your counterparty, you must enter these situations with high integrity and honesty, or else you’ll eventually be exposed as a bad partner. It’s bad business.)
Now, regarding the other method of getting someone to respect your opinion, mastering the craft of sales. The craft consists of two parts: the technical technique of sales & the abstract technique of sales.
There are many books that will try to teach you the “technical technique” of sales, for example, SPIN selling. It teaches you what kinds of questions are good to ask, when to ask them, and even the best order to ask questions. But I’m sure you’ve been sold to by a sales rep that tries to do their SPIN routine, and I’m sure it was a turn off. This is where the abstract technique of sales comes in - not just asking the right questions, but knowing what the right way to ask it is, from the tone to the speed of delivery. Knowing when to push a topic more than maybe even you’d be comfortable with doing, but also knowing when to back off.
The abstract technique of sales is much more difficult to learn, as it’s something that can only be gained with years of experience and introspection. (The truth is, not many people even want to learn the craft of sales - not even salespeople themselves! Most salespeople were forced into the career and are more suited to be order takers.)
The people who are best at effective selling are the ones who have both knowledge and craft.
The main pro of the knowledge approach is that you will be able to get by without learning the craft of sales. The main con is that you have less horizontal flexibility; if you move industries, you’ll be starting from scratch.
The main pro of the craft approach is that it’s much more scalable; you will be able to sell any product, no matter the vertical. The main con is that it’s very, very difficult to learn.
All things considered, the easiest way to sell effectively is to know more than your counterparty. IMO it’s a lot more difficult to master the craft of selling than it is to be more knowledgable than most of the counterparties you’ll encounter, in aggregate. In highly technical situations, you should at least know enough for your opinion to be respected. Even then, in those situations, you’ll likely have a technical person with you.