Purchasing and Negotiation Training

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Editor’s note:  Stu Schlackmen is a frequent contributor to this blog.  In this Part I of a two part series, he relates to sales process to some concepts of physics.  In Part II, he specifies the analogous processes of physics to sales, analogies that might appeal to the average scienticly inclined buyer.

If you took Physics you might remember the classic formula for momentum is p=mv; where p is momentum which equals mass times velocity.

Keep reading! This is not a pop quiz. Physics and sales are, of course, different practices and our business world requires both of these honest trades to function. What we find fascinating is the extent of the crossover.

Newtonian momentum (p=mv) vs. sales momentum

We can develop a comparative analogy between Newtonian momentum (p=mv) and sales momentum leading to a similar formula for success with a winning sales team. In physics p=mv, this is the relative measure of the amount of kinetic energy in a moving body.  Sometimes this formula is used to determine the impulse needed to get a resting body moving; other times it is used to examine the inertia of a body. All these italicized words from physics have crossed over into our everyday language in sales.  Why is that?

In many sales’ team meetings and training, a “buzz word” that keeps cropping up is velocity or speed – more “borrowed” words from physics. In physics velocity is measured by distance moved over an interval of time; here in sales, velocity means moving the sales cycle forward and bring a business to closure. We keep hearing these critical questions in our profession:

• From the professional on the front line: “What can we do to move that sale along and close before the end of the quarter?” “How many deals do we have in our pipeline?”
• From the sales vice president:  “How can I help? What resources do we need?”

These questions crop up time and again time at the end of each quarter and again at the end of the year. In the best of all worlds, every week we would experience these successes: 

• The contract will be signed today and they want to start next Monday on the implementation. They plan to pay in advance to get the 3% discount.
• They have two other facilities they decided to include on the initial phase of the project.
• I must send apologies to this customer. We cannot meet this week because our calendar is already full with 3 other prospects that insist on seeing us immediately.

If these three above answsers are your dream, this is your wake up call.  “Sales” is a game of momentum, part of which is definitely psychological for both the sales leader and their team members. Just as in physics, momentum is mass times velocity.  Mass is the entire team. Is this a mass at rest or a mass in motion? Velocity is the speed with which the team executes to win both new and existing business. Everyone is aligned on the same vector. As members of the team win business, it can be contagious for the other members that buy in to the team’s leader and their philosophy for winning business. Inertia is overcome. The team gains momentum.