Scientific Selling: Creating High-Performance Sales Teams Through Applied Psychology and Testing

Chapter 8

The Science of Sales Process

Use the SSAT for new hires to direct their sales training. By combining CFS with SSAT, we can identify strengths and weaknesses, and use it to focus their training. Actually, we've taken that one step further, and incorporated our internal sales process (which is based upon CFS) into our CRM system so that the entire sales team can become more process driven.

—Geoff Lepp, Sales Manager, Roll Forming

Scientific selling is scientific because it measures both the basic personality of the sales professional and the skills employed during the sales process. As we've seen in previous chapters, the main point of leverage—when it comes to increasing revenue and profit from a particular sales employee—is the development and improvement of sales skills.

While it's true that the basic concept of skills assessment is applicable to many different definitions of sales process, this book uses the SSAT as a model. The SSAT, as a measurement vehicle, is based upon the sales process known as Customer-Focused Selling (CFS), developed by the author in the 1990s. While that concept has evolved over the years, it remains an integral component of SSAT and therefore provides a more scientific perspective on sales process.

This chapter provides a brief overview of Customer-Focused Selling and how to create a more measurable and predictable sales environment.

Customer-Focused Selling

Customer-Focused Selling is about selling from the other person's perspective. While ...