Companies invest significantly in the revenue generating front end of their business. Sales Consultants make up a large proportion of this investment in business-to-business organizations. Despite this investment, the results are not always forthcoming.

To understand this disconnect, Lynette Ryals and Iain Davies, observed 800 sales professionals in live sales meetings. Out of the 8 sales types they identified, a mere 37% were consistently effective. These sales professionals, according to Ryals and Davies, fit into three groups:

1. Those that make selling seem effortless, keep clients happy and consistently outperform their peers,
2. Those that pull off some really big deals and can effectively counter client objections, although their smooth talking style puts some customers off, and
3. Those that listen well and are good problem solvers, developing solutions that meet their clients needs. They, however, tend to be one-dimensional in their approach.

via Vision Statement: Do You Really Know Who Your Best Salespeople Are? – Harvard Business Review.

Lynette Ryals is a professor at the UK’s Cranfield School of Management and Iain Davies is a lecturer at the University of Bath;