The Importance of Teaching and "Clock Speed" in Today's Selling

Since the publishing of The Challenger Sale in 2012, teaching has been highlighted as a key skill of effective salespeople.  The whole insight selling approach focuses on "tell me something that I don't already know about my business. "  How this insight is communicated to the prospect is all about teaching.  Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon talk about teaching as one of the three key attributes of the Challenger Seller (Teach, Tailor and Take Control)  More specifically they talk about "commercial teaching," and they say commercial teaching is more than just teaching the prospect/customer something they did not know about their business (an insight).  It is doing so in a way "that reliably leads to commercial wins."  To do so they say" commercial teaching has four rules:'

1. 'Lead to your unique strengths
2. Challenge customers assumptions
3. Catalyze action
4. Scale across customers"

Subsequent research and writing has reinforced this key concept.  Linda Richardson, in her latest book Changing The Sales Conversation,  actually suggests a balanced teaching approach not a "commercial" one or leading one. She does add that your example insight should be backed up with data, experience and financial return and you must communicate the contrast between the new approach and the status quo.  This is similar to the "reframing" that Adamson and Dixon talk about in "challenge customers assumptions.".

In Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently, Schultz and Doerr of the Rain Group talk of Convincing as on of their three qualities of  Insight Seller (Connect, Convince and Collaborate) Convincing is very similar to what Dixon and Adamson refer to as commercial teaching.

So we can now say that the ability to teach is a key attribute of today's effective salesperson.  However before you can teach you must first be able to learn.  The Gartner Group has a term for this very effective skill they call it "clock speed."  Learning is such a key ingredient, in today's information age,that you must not only be able to learn, but you must be able to do it quickly.  

When you are evaluating the skills of your sales force or hiring new salespeople be sure you measure their clock speed and their ability to teach.