As I’ve written elsewhere, I have been studying Cornell’s Cabrera Lab's work for a while now, learning to apply their Systems Thinking framework, DSRP, in a complex sales environment. I’m proud to announce that that relationship has produced a joint academic paper, Structured Thinking Structures Sales Opportunities that Win, with Derek Cabrera and me as the authors.
This paper, in Cabrera’s words, “sets down a flag at the crossroads of sales and systems thinking. It may be a town someday, and right now, it’s an outpost, the first of specifically applying systems thinking to the industry of sales.”
It has always been my vision to help elevate the sales profession through Membrain’s work. Partnering with academic institutions to study, practice, and train professionals has long been a part of that mission. (Kelley School of Business uses Membrain in its sales management curriculum, for instance.) The publication of this paper marks a milestone and an opportunity for us all to embrace the potential of applying structured thinking to our noble profession.
Our goal was to analyze data from real sales teams to address a targeted question and identify how DSRP can be applied in complex sales. In sales, the biggest challenge, in my opinion, has always been around the number of stakeholders involved, as it directly impacts the complexity of the decision-making process. I have written extensively about this challenge on the blog and in my book and highlighted how too many salespeople try to make a sale by only engaging one or two stakeholders. Also, common logic assumes that larger numbers of stakeholders complicate decision-making and, therefore, decrease win rates. Hence, I decided to start with this question:
The data from a sales team selling moderately complex services showed that win rates increased with the number of stakeholders, peaking at around 4-5 stakeholders before declining beyond 6. This demonstrates that a larger number of stakeholders, while increasing complexity, does not have to mean lower win rates. It also supports our perspective at Membrain that it’s crucial in complex sales to understand how buyers make decisions and help align stakeholders to reach one with maximum value and lowest perceived risk.
DSRP-483 is a universal theory of cognition with extensive empirical validation. Using it in sales can help salespeople structure their thought processes in a way that clarifies stakeholder complexity. In Derek’s and my paper, we recommend using the model to enable salespeople to co-create a shared mental model with stakeholders.
Using thinking skills enables salespeople to co-create a shared mental model with stakeholders.
We propose that sales professionals learn a set of 5 mental moves suggested by DSRP and use those moves to structure their thinking in a way that clarifies stakeholder engagement strategies. This provides a cognitive framework that helps potential customers create shared distinctions, clarifies roles and relationships among stakeholders, identifies hidden system dependencies and decision-making bottlenecks, and structures conversations to align perspectives.
It’s our belief that doing this will enable sales teams to effectively become juggernauts in aligning with and bringing on board their best customers and supercharge both individual and company growth and profitability
In future posts, I’ll go into more detail on what the framework looks like in practice and propose some ways to get started applying it on your teams. Additionally, Membrain’s platform delivers structured data that enables us to do deeper dives into this kind of research to provide more insights into sales execution. Not just to build more products but to prove their effectiveness empirically and help more sales teams become more effective. We have also initiated a project under the working name Insight Engine to embed new findings from cognitive research into our platform and leverage AI to help salespeople and leadership organize information in ways that empower better thinking and better decisions to grow their careers and companies.
You can read the paper here. Also, I will be speaking at the 2025 Cornell University International Systems Thinking Conference on how to connect the dots in complex sales, so tune in for that. And in the meantime, I’d love to know what you think. Does structured thinking using DSRP sound exciting to you and your vision for the sales profession?
George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.
Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn
From north to south, east to west, Membrain has thousands of happy clients all over the world.
