How to Sell More: Tools and Techniques from Harvard Business Review

The Best Sales Leaders Are Trend Hunters

By Pär Edin, Oskar Lingqvist, and Åsa Tamsons

Pär Edin is a director, Oskar Lingqvist is a partner, and Åsa Tamsons is an associate principal in McKinsey’s Stamford Office. They all work in the Marketing & Sales Practice and contributed to the book Sales Growth (Wiley, 2012).

Sales is all about hitting your numbers. The rapid fire, adrenalin-infused process of nailing monthly and annual sales targets comes with the territory. But who’s aiming for targets two and three years out? It’s not just a job for strategy; the best sales leaders are hunting for trends.

Future growth isn’t about gut instinct or reading tea leaves to find the next big thing. Sales leaders we spoke to in writing ...