What Is Selling?

Sometimes, the simplest questions reveal hidden information. Definitions for words that we use all the time can seem obvious, until we start trying to actually define them. Then, we discover the concept is more complex than we realized, and attempting to answer can give us clarity we didn’t realize we didn’t have.

That’s what happened for me when I started really thinking about the deceptively simple question: What is selling?

Quickly, before you read on, if you had to define the word “selling,” without using related words (like sales), how would you do that? Jot it down. I’d love to know what you come up with, and how close it is to my own definition.

The Evolution of Selling

It makes sense that we all know what selling means, even if we can’t define it off the top of our heads. The act of selling has been around for most of human history. From an ancient Greek agora, where merchants offered olive oil, fish, grain and wine, to the highly organized marketplaces of China where everything from everyday goods to exotic foreign imports of textiles, precious stones, and even animals–selling has been with us for as far back as any historical record can show.

In an ancient marketplace, selling might have involved simply setting out your wares and grabbing the attention of passersby with an attractive display and a tale about the value of your goods. In the modern world, selling can still be just that simple. You open a booth at a festival, a market square, or a permanent venue, and offer your goods, convincing visitors to take a peek and hopefully part with some money.

But today, selling can also be a highly complex affair, such as when large organizations attempt to sell solutions to other large organizations. These complex sales can involve dozens of stakeholders, interlocked systems and platforms, high levels of disruption, and significant perceived risk on the part of the buyer. Selling in this environment requires much more skill and effort than simply setting your product in front of a buyer and telling them how great it is.

So What, Exactly, Is Selling?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines selling as “the activity of making products and services available so that people buy them, or the job and skill of persuading people to buy things.” I find this definition to be adequate if we’re talking about pens or apples or shirts. But when it comes to complex sales, it definitely leaves a lot out.

Complex sales means helping stakeholders align on their current state, desired outcome, barriers, perceived risks, and urgency, to confidently invest in a solution.

Selling, in a complex sales environment, requires a great deal more than simply “making products and services available” or “persuading people to buy things.” In a complex sales environment, you have to interact with multiple stakeholders, help them develop a shared mental model, and become a decision-making catalyst that motivates them to sign a contract to purchase and implement your solution.

Selling Means Developing a Shared Mental Model

One of the reasons that selling to a large organization is complex, is that every stakeholder will have a different view of the problem, its importance, possible solutions, and desired outcomes. In order to sell under these conditions, salespeople have to discover these individual perspectives and help the critical stakeholders develop a shared mental model for both the problem and its solution.

Selling Means Becoming a Decision-Making Catalyst

In complex sales, the most common “winning competitor” is the status quo. Change is hard for individuals, and even harder for large companies. And when that change impacts multiple departments, systems, and stakeholders, it becomes even more difficult.

Selling, in this environment, requires the salesperson to help stakeholders understand and internalize the cost of not making a change. Gain a clear idea of the changes that would benefit them (that is, the shared mental model). Address the real and perceived risks of the change so that they feel they are making an informed decision. And then, get across the finish line to sign the contract and make the purchase.

What Is Selling in a Complex Sales Environment?

With all of the above in mind, I want to suggest to Cambridge Dictionary that we pull all of this together to add a third definition of “selling” that applies specifically to the modern world of complex sales. Here’s my suggestion:

“Complex sales means helping stakeholders align on their current state, desired outcome, barriers, perceived risks, and urgency, to confidently invest in a solution.”

What do you think?  Does this cover all the bases? How do you define selling in a complex sales environment?