Is it possible to find a sales process that takes advantage of one's strengths?

No, compatibility has much to do with it, but the process must also be mastered.

Selling encompasses much more than just the skills one learns. Selling is a combination of both skills and behaviors. Although skills can be learned, they must be combined with one's behavioral strengths in order to become as effective as possible. One's behaviors influence what you can and cannot do successfully.

If you take a holistic approach to selling, seeking to align your skills and your behavioral strengths to your selling strategy, you can be more successful.

Why do some people use SPIN successfully and others bomb? Yet, some of those who couldn't make SPIN work can use another process and succeed. Partly it's the belief they have--or don't have in the system they've learned; partly it's how well they've learned and perfected the processes required skills; and partly it's how well their personal strengths mesh with the process. It isn't an either/or and it isn't one more than the other.

If sales were nothing but learning and implementing skills, there would be more than only 15% of all salespeople making superior incomes for their industry.

There are actually two areas of potential strengths that need to be taken into consideration. I've used the word behavior just to keep the posts as short as possible. The two areas are behaviors and abilities. some examples

patience
consistency
determination
empathy
idealism
goal oriented
logical thinking
strategic thinking
visionary
competitiveness
team oriented
individualistic
analytical
problem solver
adaptability
take charge
facilitator

and we could go on. each of these is a strength in some situations, a weakness in others. Some are virtually set in stone and almost impossible to change although one can possibly control it, while others can be cultivated, at least to some extent. they come in all different combinations. no one has them all, everyone has some.

It is quite possible to determine in which type of selling an individual is most likely to be successful.

I have been studying selling since 1953 and I have concluded that there are only four basic sales paradigms

1. Transactional Selling, i.e., most retail selling, most commodity selling, etc.

2. Rhetorical Selling, which includes persuasion, convincing, and all other forms of manipulation, i.e., horse trading, auto sales, time-shares, etc.

3. Needs Selling, which includes, Scientific Selling, Medical Detailing, Consultative Selling, SPIN Selling, Solution Selling, Customer Centered Selling, Value Based Selling, Buying Facilitation, etc. Most forms of Needs selling utilize Rhetorical sales practices as well.

4. Wants Selling, which includes, High Probability Selling and some others that I am not aware of.

The PinnacleGroupUSA, performs Behavioral Profiling and Analysis for hundreds of companies. They have profiled thousands of salespeople. They have also benchmarked many of the people that excel in each of the four sales paradigms.

By comparing the profile of an individual against those benchmarks, they can accurately predict the individual sales productivity of that person in a sales position where any of those paradigms is utilized.

If it were only so easy as to take an assessment. There are dozens of assessment companies with sales assessment products on the market. They all have different paradigms, all come up with different combinations of required skills, all claim to be the definitive answer.

Unfortunately, aligning one's strengths and abilities, I believe, takes more than simply taking an assessment. Every assessment company I know has the disclaimer that their assessment only increases the likelihood of success. Nothing can guarantee success in sales, but salespeople can work to increase their chances of success by using all of the tools at their disposal.

Assessments are fine and I encourage people to take them, just don't rely completely on them. A more reliable reference is one's sales history--a detailed analysis of where one has succeeded and where one has failed. What their actual numbers and history say is far more accurate than an assessment. To have an assessment as a sounding board is, I think, important, but as a sounding board only, not as the determining factor.

Jeff Blackwell posed the question:
“Is it possible to find a sales process that takes advantage of one's strengths?”

My post above was intended to answer his question. It was not intended to negate anything that you had posted.

Here is what I am wondering about your response. .
In your first paragraph, above:
Are you implying that I stated, that the PinnacleGroupUSA claims to have the definitive answer?

They are under the category of "all assessment companies." Therefore, you seem to be accusing them of making those claims, as well.

In your second paragraph above,
Who suggested that anyone can “guarantee sales success?”

Could it be that your responses are merely self-serving debating tactics?

My answer didn't infer that you had stated that PinnacleGroup had the definitive answer. It was simply a statement that assessments, though of value, aren't without error. Your answer to the question was that it was being done by at least one company. My response was that there are several companies doing assessments and all assessments have a good deal of latitude for error.

I am not aware of any assessment company that doesn't claim to be the definitive answer in the sense that they claim to have the most accurate assessment on the market. If PinncaleGroup doesn't make that claim, then, yes, I was wrong for using the word all. If they do, then they are claiming to have the definitive answer. Not in the sense of 100% accuracy, but in the sense of being definitive for their product.

No one suggested that success could be guaranteed, although some assessment companies advertise their product as virtually 100% accurate. The statement that no one can guarantee success was in reference to how some companies try to promote their assessment product. Wasn't a statement about PinnacleGroup or any other specific company.

My answer wasn't intended to be baiting or confrontational--it was intended to simply make a statement about assessments. Based on your use of bold though out your last post, you seem to have taken it personally when it wasn't intended that way. If you look at any of my posts you'll see that I don't attack, I don't bait, and I don't try to intentionally pick fights. I reply to posts with what I think will help or clarify.