According to sales-master Brian Tracy, the answer is yes.

Speaking in an interview to promote his latest book, “Unlimited Sales Success”, Brian revealed that he’d advise every salesperson to identify a speciality.

“People prefer to deal with people who are the best in their field.” Says Tracy. “Becoming an expert in something requires a clear marketing decision. How will you position yourself on the market, and which industries will you focus on?”

He cites the example of an insurance salesman who “did what everyone was told to do” in the early days – specifically, target any high-income prospects. Professionals quickly realised that he had no knowledge of their particular fields, though, and turned him away. One even told him that it was like taking advice from a child. When he decided to focus on medical sales, however, and spent time learning about the industry, he established a powerful reputation. “He became the go-to person in financial planning for medical professionals, and in five years, there was £1 million a year in business flowing to him.”

Do you think being a specialist is essential to succeeding at sales?

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On the surface, it makes no sense. Prospects for B2B sales are usually intelligent, with many being college or university educated, with qualifications and plenty of experience.

The more complex the sale, the more intelligent the buyer. Despite this, the smartest thing you can do is to simplify your sales process. That doesn’t mean to gloss over problems, or to condescend your customer, but to keep everything streamlined and simple. That could mean talking in terms of how many documents you can store in a specific Cloud, for example, rather than reciting space data, or talking about the benefits of a faster processor, rather than reading out technical specifications.

Here’s why:

1. Too much information feeds buyers’ risk aversion. It adds complexity, and increases risk. It’s a deal killer.
2. Change feeds fear. A buying decision hinges on a prospects willingness to change the status quo. The more complex your sales process is, the more changes you are asking your prospect to make.
3. Analysis becomes paralysis. Super-smart prospects can become preoccupied in analysing every detail. Every small detail requires evaluation, analysis, comparison, time and energy. It delays the process, and gives the prospect more time to postpone.

So how do you avoid these?

Simplify your process. Find out who has a say in the buying decision, what information they absolutely need, and what are the milestones. Work out if the decision needs to be unanimous, and who keeps the process on track. Go one step at a time, and focus on manageable steps. Avoid introducing too much information at once, and use staging so that your buyer only needs to consider what’s relevant for each step.

Don’t give in to temptation to use jargon, either. Speak in terms of what your product does, not what it is. Let the product do the talking. More people will understand “900,000,000 documents” than “16GB”.

Is your sales process simple enough?

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