If a salesperson fails to earn a buyers commitment initially, he or she should:

Reprint: R0607L

Many companies today are faced with large, complex selling situations—they sell expensive equipment that affects many parts of a customer’s company, they work on sales that may take several years to consummate, or they arrange mergers with other organizations. These major sales need special handling: They are more complex than smaller transactions, their potential profit is larger, and they have a more lasting effect on both buyer and seller.

In this article, first published in 1976, the authors develop a systematic approach that companies can use not only to facilitate the sale but also to ensure the long-term account relationship. Their eight-step procedure shows how to open a contact, “separate the suspects from the prospects,” develop a profile of a company’s needs and key personnel, justify the purchase to the buyer, make the sales pitch, coordinate company resources, close the sale, and maintain the account.

Before they can engage in strategic selling, most companies will have to revise the makeup of their sales forces according to the kind of sales they want to make, which may include different types of nonrecurring sales. To help solve these more-complicated selling problems, the authors provide organizational guidelines for companies to use in their specific operations. Among these are creating a senior sales force to service a multitude of major accounts, assigning a field sales manager to one or two accounts for regional sales management, and having top executives take charge of the large sales.

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It has become increasingly clear over the past 15 years that salesmanship has been changing, especially when one business sells industrial or consumer goods and services to another.1 As a result, the salesperson is being called on to perform in a different way.

One major change is that as mergers and acquisitions, sales of parts of companies, and different kinds of corporate financing have become more prevalent, the one-of-a-kind, nonrepetitive sale—such as the sale of a subsidiary or company, or a licensing arrangement—has become more important. These transactions have always existed, but they are more numerous and significant now and are beginning to attract the attention of sales management.

Second, businesses have become larger (and at the same time more complex), and the average size of the sale has grown. In certain industries, this change has been dramatic, especially with the development of system selling and large private-label contracts in consumer goods. Consider these examples:

• The Industrial Chemical division at Allied Chemical has sold sulfuric acid for many years. Its larger annual contract sales have been in the $1 million to $2 million range and have lasted for several years. Recently, the division developed a process for air pollution control whose sales involve a total capital commitment for a utility of more than $20 million and cover many years.

• Private-label contracts for consumer goods have not only grown in size but have also gone beyond the traditional general merchandise chains (Sears, Roebuck; J.C. Penney; and Montgomery Ward) to cover supermarkets, discount department stores, and regular department stores. Arrangements involving more than $10 million are not uncommon with such contracts.

• Even comparatively small companies are making large sales. In the field of building cleaning and maintenance, companies with $10 million in sales often compete for million-dollar contracts.

• The outcome of a few large sales can sometimes determine a company’s well-being. For example, one of Lockheed’s major continuing problems has been low sales of the L1011 aircraft.

In industry, the consequences of the repetitive sale are often even more profound than the initial commitment itself; for system selling, one purchase decision can involve capital, supplies, raw material, and processes. The sale of a computer system can seriously affect a corporation’s procedures and policies for many years. Methods of financial reporting, inventory control, production control, marketing, and administration can all be affected.

As the complexity of the purchase and the risk involved have increased, so have the cost and intricacy of selling and servicing the account. The average industrial sales call costs more than $70, with some sales requiring years to consummate. Larger sales often require special products and services and even custom manufacture. For example, most private-label lines are designed expressly for one customer.

Because the major sale affects many functional departments of the buyer, decision making is becoming more involved and the buying criteria more sophisticated. Naturally, the buyer’s personnel are concerned over such a large purchase and must carefully evaluate its impact on their operations. Thus they need continuing reassurance and, in particular, more financial data—data such as return on investment and cost/performance measurements.

Because the major sale affects many functional departments of the buyer, decision making is becoming more involved and the buying criteria more sophisticated.

In this article, we will try to develop a program of responses that marketers can use in confronting these two new situations. After explaining the basic approach, we unfold eight steps management should take to ensure a more successful and long-lasting sale. Finally, we provide some organizational guidelines to help companies incorporate this approach into their overall activities.

The Basic Approach

Major sales, including both onetime sales and continuing relationships, need special handling: They are more complex, their potential profit is larger, and they have a more lasting effect on both buyer and seller. A systematic approach that works for both types of selling situations is strategic selling. This is a meticulously planned, total process, requiring coordination of the buyer and seller, that identifies the customer’s needs and relates the company’s products to those needs.

Strategic selling is especially relevant for “big-ticket” sales because only large potential profit can justify the careful planning and large amounts of resources that are required. Although it is not a new technique, it is attracting attention because it brings to bear more people, greater resources, and more information about the customer’s needs; these characteristics uniquely suit the changes that have taken place in salesmanship.

The process is particularly effective because it emphasizes the dual goals of making the sale and developing account relationships. With escalating profits and longevity of sales, this latter goal is increasingly important. In fact, for repetitive major sales the objective should be to develop long-term account relationships, not just sales. The supplier with an established account relationship has a significant competitive advantage. Because risks are high and an intimate buyer/seller relationship builds up over time, buyers are hesitant to try new suppliers and tend to remain with established ones (unless the relationship becomes unbearable or costs increase significantly).

In fact, several corporations believe that their best prospects are current customers. For example, experts in the computer industry claim IBM statistics show that each new account’s purchases grow eight times in every six years—this means that the new $5,000-per-month account will be producing $40,000 per month in six years.

Since satisfactory account relationships are an advantage to a marketer, the salesperson has two responsibilities: (1) to stress the long-term benefits of the account relationship to the customer and (2) to help develop trust and credibility in himself and his company.

There is a definite trade-off between “forcing” a customer to buy something and developing a long-term relationship with that customer. This trade-off can lead to a phenomenon called the “Pyrrhic sale,” in which the sale is made at the expense of the account. In long-term relationships the customer is repeatedly in the position of being able to purchase the product. This circumstance requires the salesperson to manage the account carefully: If he (or she) forces a marginal sale, this often destroys credibility and the opportunity for future sales. But if the salesperson is willing to forgo a sale that is not in the long-term interest of the account, he can build his relationship with that account.

For example, the seller of apparel who is willing to tell a customer that some items in his line do not sell well at retail, in spite of their apparent appeal, helps his customer and himself over the long run. Or picture the response a buyer would give to the pump salesperson who says, “Yes, we offer the best pumps for your needs a, b, and c, but unfortunately, our pumps are not as good for application d as those offered by competitors x and y.”

The onetime sale is a somewhat different situation, in that the buying company is even more careful in protecting its interest. But the seller should still want to “leave a good taste in the buyer’s mouth” because the sale is visible in the business community, especially within the particular industry, and because the buyer and seller will often be involved with each other after the sale. For example, the managers of a company being acquired often become employees of the buying company. Thus they want to structure a sale that will leave all parties satisfied. This is also true of licensing arrangements and other onetime sales that create lasting relationships.

One of the intriguing aspects of the onetime sale is that both sides are usually selling to each other. For example, the acquiring company often spends a great deal of effort selling the managers of the potential acquisition on the benefits of the merger. This leads to a two-sided romance negotiation in which both parties are sellers and buyers. Thus strategic selling can be applied not only to both types of major sale but also to both sides of the onetime sale.

Step by Step

Strategic selling is an eight-part process that develops the sale from the initial decision to pursue a prospect, through the appropriate strategy for courting an account, to the eventual close of the sale. Because strategic selling is also concerned with developing account relationships, the process is not complete without a discussion of how to sustain those relationships. Let us take a look at each of these steps in turn.

1. Opening the selling process.

In preparing for a sale, the salesperson should do enough homework so that he has an idea of the likelihood of a sale and the appropriate person to contact initially. Assuming he feels he has a chance to make the sale, his next step is to make the “opening,” which is often done over the telephone. His object is to gain enough information from the initial contact to determine the most appropriate person or people to meet.

The best opening, particularly for onetime sales, is sometimes made through a third party; this enables the seller to gain recognition and credibility, avoid making a cold call that puts him at a disadvantage, and obtain information without announcing his intentions. Some companies have developed proven third parties into a “second sales force.” Consider these examples:

• A young Los Angeles–based company that sells television production services always finds it easier and more effective for its duplication and distribution supplier to make the introduction. The latter company has been in business 30 years and has established an excellent reputation and a large, satisfied customer base.

• Bank of America is training its corporate loan officers to approach CPAs for an introduction to the latter’s clients.

For these third-party openings and references to work over a period of time, both parties have to get something from the arrangement. Frequently, such informal relationships work out so well for each party that a more formal sales agreement results in a commission or royalty to the third party for introductions that lead to firm orders.

2. Qualifying the prospect.

The next step is to determine whether a sale can eventually be made, or as someone has described it, to “separate the suspects from the prospects.” Unfortunately, many companies appear to spend more time selling to prospects who have no intention of buying than to those who do. The old criterion of numbers—which measured selling effectiveness by the number of sales calls—is no longer valid; what matters is the quality of the call. The salesperson should ask himself questions like these:

• Does this prospective buyer really have a need for my product?

• Do the top managers recognize that need?

• If they don’t, is it likely that I can educate them?

• Can I justify my product as a response to that need?

• Can I identify influential buyers and others who may affect the decision to buy?

All of these questions boil down to two equally important issues: (1) Can my company be of service to their company? and (2) Can I bring the two companies together? It’s almost impossible, for example, for a salesperson to compete with another eager seller who has a close relationship, such as a family tie, with the prospective buyer.

Many companies appear to spend more time selling to prospects who have no intention of buying than to those who do.

Psychologically, the qualification process is difficult for a salesperson to accept because he has historically been taught that the “lead” is his most valuable possession. What he must learn now is that if the lead is not likely to become a sale, he should not pursue it, and that he is going to have to make the decision about its potential for himself. Not only does he have to ask penetrating questions like those mentioned previously, but he might also have to break off a friendly relationship if it doesn’t promise any business.

3. Developing the sales strategy.

In strategic selling, so many activities are required, so much information has to be obtained, and so many influential people have to be attended to that it is easy to overlook important considerations.

Once he thinks the sale is possible, the salesperson needs a plan to enable him to direct his own efforts and to deploy his company’s resources to make the sale and develop the account relationship. What we call the “Strategic Sales Opportunity Profile” is a simple technique to help him map out his entire strategy and organize his sales effort so that all the bases have been covered.

On one form, the salesperson can list people contacted, information obtained, his own activities, follow-up action, and results of the contact. The information he obtains will vary widely, from the practical (certain individuals need detailed cost estimates, or specific product and application data) and organizational (they will only negotiate with the seller’s organizational counterpart or need reassurance about their role vis-à-vis the purchase), to the personal (they prefer concepts to details or cannot make a decision unless one of their associates confirms it).

If he completes the profile carefully, updates it regularly, and pursues each selling activity to its conclusion, he will be more likely to close the order. In addition, if he loses a sale, he will be able to make a better postmortem diagnosis.

The profile can also provide valuable information to product and market planning personnel at headquarters. By accumulating the data from the profiles nationally, planners can see trends, such as new applications for their current products, and the need for new products or services.

The salesperson’s strategy should be based on the detailed information he has gathered during and after his analysis of the buyer. If he has grasped the idea of strategic selling, he will have asked the right questions: Will the person I’m going to call on make the actual decision? What kind of person is he? How does he fit into the organization? What is his background? Is it technical? Managerial? Where did he work before?

His strategy should also ensure that all of the influential buyers receive attention and the appropriate kind of attention (for example the traditional lunch or dinner, or financial data for the treasurer, or technical information for the engineering manager).

The key to strategic selling is calling “high and broad,” something most salespeople fear or don’t understand. They can talk to a purchasing agent or plant supervisor with relative impunity, but the prospect of calling on a president or an executive vice president frightens them. Although they know that high-priced sales decisions are made at very high levels, they often sell only at the lower levels, where they feel more comfortable, and let the middle-management contacts they have made there carry the story to top management.

This decision has two detrimental effects: (1) Some of the strength of their sales presentation is lost in the transmittal, and (2) what is even more damaging, the salesperson often loses a chance to develop a relationship with top managers and to directly gather data on the situation as these managers perceive it. After all, top managers are the people most affected by major purchases, since they will probably have to alter corporate policies and procedures to accommodate the new product or service.

For example, the salesman for a materials handling system spent three months with the director of western warehouse operations of a large New York–based manufacturing company. All along, this contact assured the salesman that he made all the decisions for his area. Unfortunately, competition got the business for the four regional warehouses because it won over the VP of operations in New York, who had the budget approval for all new warehouse systems.

4. Organizing the justification.

Once the salesperson has determined whom to contact (and at a high enough level), it is time to assist the company in cost-justifying the purchase. For the company to make a decision on a multimillion dollar product or service, each top executive will have to understand exactly how the purchase will affect his operation, budget, cash flow, and personal concerns.

So, at this stage of the strategic sales process, the salesperson must meet with each top executive affected by the purchase to determine his position, unique needs, and the qualitative and financial criteria he uses to justify large purchases. This entails becoming completely conversant with the prospect’s operations, gaining a detailed grasp of its finances, and understanding the effect the seller’s products and services will have on those operations. In effect, the salesperson should know as much as or even more about such matters than do some of the prospect’s top people.

The salesperson is more likely to succeed if he understands the few really important variables that will eventually affect the final sale. Then he can limit the data he needs to those pieces of information and the sources for that information.

Since most cost justifications will be based on certain key assumptions, it is important to get a consensus on each assumption from the decision makers. Even when the salesperson isn’t sure how the purchase will affect the organization, he can solicit opinions on potential cost benefits. Answers to such questions as, “Do you feel our service can increase sales by 10% over a two-year period?” or “Have you achieved a 5% decrease in labor costs with similar machinery in the past?” from several top executives can give the salesperson a way to justify the purchase, or at least to test alternative solutions to the prospect’s problems. The object is to focus on what the prospect thinks is feasible and to use his numbers, not those the selling company believes are possible. By combining the best points made by each manager, the salesperson stands a better chance of having his reasoning accepted by the purchaser.

If he gathers data correctly, the salesperson will discover that this is his best time to sell; the decision makers are most free during this phase to say, “Here’s what I want” and “Here’s how I want to be sold.”

5. Making the presentation.

The presentation summarizes all of the relevant information in the form of a proposal. If the right people are in attendance, the salesperson should usually use the presentation as an opportunity to ask for the order. While there is no established pattern for the most effective sales presentation, the selling company should carefully consider these factors: elements and order of presentation, location, timing, and who will be listening.

Elements and order of presentation.

The best selling presentations deliver no new information to the audience. The presentation should only summarize the agreements previously reached with each of the decision makers, thus reinforcing the agreed-on solutions, cost justification, and the implementation commitments. People used to working with committees will be familiar with this approach: A typical way to handle a committee is to personally sell each committee member on a proposal before the meeting and then to gather general agreement at the meeting.

The sidebar “Elements of a Formal Presentation,” shows the elements that a selling company should consider for a formal presentation. Note that the presentation basically flows from action to analysis to implementation. The summary is listed first because it outlines the conclusions and recommendations of the study, and because it provides the audience with a general understanding of the direction of the proposal.

Management Summary

Ties the presentation to the individuals involved in the sale, reflects mutual agreement already reached with the top decision makers, and makes note of the customer’s criteria for selection.

Scope

States the objectives and nature of the problems being solved or challenges being addressed.

Advantages

Spells out the advantages in such a way that the presenting company’s products or services are made exclusive (so that they cannot be duplicated by competition).

Recommended Solutions

Tailors the specific products, services, programs, or all three to the prospect’s requirements, environment, and management objectives.

Financial Analysis and Cost Justification

(reached through mutual agreement)

Shows the economic justification to favor the seller company’s method over the prospect’s current means of performing the function and over possible proposals from competition.

Implementation Schedule

Describes the seller’s and the prospect’s responsibilities, the people to be involved, and dates of completion for the main tasks.

Contract

Spells out the terms and conditions of the sale, which have already been discussed with the prospect.

Location.

Marketing and sales managers often neglect the many possibilities open to them for a location—such as the prospect’s facilities, a rented hotel or conference center space, the selling company’s own seminar or presentation facility, an installation done for another customer, or a mobile display unit mounted in a trailer or bus.

Timing.

This is another element that will be critical to the effectiveness of a presentation. If a salesperson and the prospect haven’t reached mutual agreement on major points, such as the seller’s analysis, then the presentation may be premature.

Attendees.

The selling company should make sure that all decision makers are at the meeting, and invite those people within its organization who can best represent it from a social as well as business point of view—in other words, the counterparts of the prospect’s personnel. The total group should be small enough to remain intimate and workable. The seller should also ensure that the presentation has enough variety of speakers to be interesting but not confusing. Some team members may take active roles, some may provide supportive information, and others may be there primarily as a formality.

For several reasons, the personal involvement of top managers is justified, and frequently required, by the buying company. First, they are the only people who can make the commitments the buyer requires—that is, adjust the selling conditions (including price, delivery, product features, and quality) and make and guarantee commitments that would sound hollow coming from lower management.

Second, they have the appropriate status to deal with top executives in the buying organization, who feel more comfortable dealing with their organizational counterparts.

Third, strategic selling involves more risk and requires greater resources—including higher-powered salespeople and better developed programs and sales aids—than the more typical approach. Only top managers can provide the discipline, allocate the resources, and establish the high standards such a program needs. Moreover, they have to provide continual motivation to a sales force that can easily become discouraged by a long lead time for sales. Their interest and involvement can be demonstrated not only by attendance at the presentation but also by account reviews with the sales representative and direct sales calls on the prospective buyer. (For the nonrepetitive sale, their involvement is perhaps more crucial—only they can abrogate standard policies and procedures to provide the attention and resources needed on a onetime basis.)

6. Coordinating resources and personnel.

During the selling process, the salesperson is responsible for managing the resources of his company, which may include financial, operations, nonsales marketing, and general management personnel and resources. For example, a private-label sale might involve a special product configuration (product development and design personnel), production capacity (manufacturing), warehousing and delivery requirements (distribution), and special costs, pricing, and payment schedules (finance and control). In addition, because the salesperson makes the major decisions and commitments, he should thoroughly understand his company’s organizational, operational, and cost structure. For example, he must know what effect the commitment to deliver a large amount of a particular product will have on the company’s ability to operate profitably. He should also understand the other functional areas of his company and be able to work with the personnel.

An interesting by-product of the salesperson’s introduction of other resources into the prospect company is the new lines of communication that are developed between the seller and the buyer. If they are introduced and coordinated effectively, these new resources can assist the salesperson in building the account relationship after the order is signed.

The salesperson must be given a good deal of freedom to make decisions about the sale. If a large prospective customer is interested in a minor product modification, he must be able to respond quickly to that need—either positively or negatively. If the buyer gets a runaround such as, “Let me check with my boss so that he can check with engineering and manufacturing,” the sale will be lost.

Marketing as a primary resource.

In the marketing department alone, the salesperson may need to call on product, pricing, and advertising support, as well as sales promotion and sales aids. Many major accounts need special products or modification of existing products (such as private labels, packaging, and product-related servicing), and their volume often makes such customization justifiable. For example, a large fastener company packages its general-line fasteners in special containers for large users. The customer can feed highly mechanized equipment automatically by using the packing container as a feed bin.

Because of their volume, major accounts often desire substantial price concessions. Although the Robinson-Patman Act puts limits on both requests and grants for special concessions, some can be cost justified. In many situations, a buyer does not contest the price itself so much as the net cost of the acquired goods and services. To the buyer, special delivery patterns, payment patterns, and other concessions are sometimes more important than the price per se.

Occasionally, major accounts are especially interested in customer-designed advertising or sales promotion programs. For example, large retailers with many stores sometimes find manufacturers who provide heavy in-store support particularly attractive. Such suppliers are often more responsive to the desires of the retailer’s merchandising manager than are his own store managers. Thus the in-store support is worth more to the retailer than it costs the supplier.

However, all extra services cost money. Because they are more expensive and more unusual than in ordinary sales, the selling company must carefully analyze their cost and sales impact.

7. Closing the sale.

Because of the complexity of the selling process and the length of the selling cycle, the close is the first concrete evidence that the salesperson is successful. Since the signature may occur anywhere from six months to three years after the start of the sales process, the salesperson should close on each “call”—that is, he should get an agreement from the prospect up to that point in the sales cycle. Since changes in the sales situation—such as a change in decision makers, or a shift in competitive strategy—can take place between calls, it is also a good idea to reaffirm or close again on previous agreements reached on each call.

By continually asking and getting answers to such questions as, “If we could deliver that system with an average ROI of 15% per annum, would you buy?” the salesperson knows well before the process is completed whether he has won the sale. If many decision makers give him negative responses, he can get out before too much time and money have been invested.

8. Nurturing the account relationship.

Some top marketers feel that the real selling starts after the order is signed for a major sale. For instance, a manufacturer of complex process control systems who performed a profitability analysis of each account discovered that 25% were unprofitable because of poor account management and salesmanship after the order had been signed.

If the product requires installation, training of personnel, or extended delivery schedules, the chances of the sale going sour increase unless the salesperson effectively controls the account. One way for him to do this is to develop a long-term plan for his products, services, and resources with the customer. He should also have his own account plan (like the Strategic Sales Opportunity Profile), which repeats most of the previous eight steps in qualifying, justifying, and developing strategies to expand the account. (His plan would be a more complete version of the plan he develops with his client.) For this planning process to work, he must involve the customer with the plan. In addition, the salesperson must locate inside advocates early to multiply his efforts in the account when he is not there.

The most important thing the salesperson can do is to keep selling contacts on the correctness of their buying decision, so that “buyers’ blues” don’t set in. He should continue as liaison between his company and his customer throughout delivery, installation, and usage. By dovetailing his product or service with his customer’s operations and by making sure the product is producing the promised returns with the best utilization, the salesperson provides the extra assurance of add-on orders for his company and profitability for the customer. Postsales service not only reinforces the customer’s confidence in the seller but also tends to keep competition out, since the customer’s people are too busy working with the seller.

Organizational Guidelines

Because the strategic selling process is considerably more complex than the typical sales process, it requires new organizational techniques. For a company to solve more involved selling problems, it will have to revise the makeup of its sales force, depending on the kind of sale it wants to make; it must find solutions not only for recurring and non-recurring sales but also for different kinds of recurring sales.

Variations on a theme.

A company can handle the repetitive major sale in several ways. Where strategic selling is necessary throughout the sales organization (for example, when selling computers, heavy equipment, or private-label food packers) management can concentrate on developing that strategy alone. However, many companies do not use strategic selling alone. In that situation, management may find it useful to separate strategic selling from other types of selling and use one of the approaches that follow.

Special sales force.

When a company has many major accounts and prospects, typical in the food and packaged-goods industries, it can use a special sales force of senior sales representatives to service them. Most food manufacturers and the larger food brokers assign their major salespeople to cover the buying offices of the large food chains and wholesalers, while assigning junior salespeople to the individual retail stores and independent accounts.

Regional sales management.

Where the seller has fewer, but scattered, major accounts, the best approach is often to assign each field sales manager to one or two accounts—an approach furniture and apparel businesses sometimes use. (However, this approach runs the risk that the sales manager will neglect managing in favor of selling.)

Small national account group.

Even fewer major accounts can usually be handled by a small national structure of headquarters specialists. A large ink company, for example, uses several experienced, capable salespeople to call on the national publishers and printers that have many plants, while field salespeople call on individual plants.

There are many variations on this general approach. In some companies, especially industrial products manufacturers, market or product specialists or both fill the major account sales role. For instance, one manufacturer of complex specialized industrial materials has three selling organizations. These are (1) the regular field sales force, which is organized geographically; (2) product managers who are responsible for each general product category, technically trained, and available to help the field sales force with technical and applications problems for major sales; and (3) marketing managers who are responsible for developing marketing programs for major industry categories (like electronics and capital equipment), who help handle major sales, and who participate in industry-oriented trade shows.

Separate division.

Still others establish a separate integrated division for the large accounts so that these accounts can receive special attention from an integrated operation (such as manufacturing and marketing). While this is expensive and not easy to do, it ensures that large sales will not disrupt normal plant activities. This is a typical approach for companies that manufacture private-label products for large retail chains. Often these companies can reap special manufacturing savings by producing long runs and limited product lines in a separate, specially designed facility.

Top management.

Finally, top executives make the large sales in some companies. One large building cleaning and maintenance contractor, for example, has no real field sales force. Instead, customer liaison people work with existing customers. However, the real sales work is done by top headquarters executives who deal with owners and managers of large buildings.

While this arrangement provides commitment and organizational attention for the large accounts, it sometimes leads to neglect in the management of the business. The large accounts begin to demand more attention than the executives can spare.

Complete involvement.

On the other hand, nonrepetitive major sales are not handled by any established sales organization; a special sales force must be developed to handle them. The selling company has two options: It can develop a task force to handle the process internally, or it can contract with some form of sales agency, such as an investment banker, real estate or business broker, or private placement specialist.

If the sale is monumental (like the sale of the company), the task force must consist of people who have been removed from their other company responsibilities to as large an extent as possible. It should be put together carefully and include sales talent experienced in strategic selling and expert in finance (because of the complex nature and financial impact of such sales). In addition, people familiar with the prospective customers will be valuable to the team for their knowledge and possible personal contacts.

The nonrepetitive sales situation raises a unique training problem. Most of the learning must come through careful planning and review as the selling process is going on. However, salespeople can gain some training by working with people skilled in such sales situations (like investment bankers).

In industrial marketing, buyer/seller relationships tend to be both continuing in nature and complex. They go well beyond sales transactions and very often involve technical assistance to customers, joint product-development efforts, and product service. Advertising on behalf of customers, financing their purchases, and entertaining key managers in customer companies are all tactics intended to put sellers in a favorable competitive position….

Clearly, industrial buyer/seller relationships involve many people on both sides—procurement managers, field salesmen, technical service representatives, engineers, financial managers, R&D technicians, and top corporate officers. The relationships are difficult to control and even more difficult to appraise in terms of strategic effectiveness. But they are critically important. The development of strong, multidimensional, and constructive working relationships with one’s customers is the key to industrial-marketing success.

From E. Raymond Corey, Industrial Marketing: Cases & Concepts (Prentice-Hall, 1976); reprinted with the permission of Prentice-Hall.

Nonrepetitive sales made by some form of facilitating sales organization, while expensive, decrease the drain on internal company resources. But even when outsiders take over much of the responsibility for the actual selling, company personnel need to be involved. Top managers don’t always treat this kind of sale with the same expenditure of effort and resources as they treat other sales. They must choose the right agent—a difficult process that, to be done correctly, takes time. They must also supervise the selling process and ensure that the company’s objectives are met with minimum expense. And finally, they are responsible for assisting in the actual sale, since their power and knowledge are often invaluable.

1. For articles documenting this change, see “The New Supersalesman,” Business Week, January 6, 1973; Alton F. Doody and William G. Nickels, “Structuring Organizations for Strategic Selling,” MSU Business Topics, Autumn 1972; and Carl Rieser, “The Salesman Isn’t Dead—He’s Different,” Fortune, November 1966.

A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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