By Mike Myatt, Chief StrategyOfficer, N2growthThe thoughts that follow arebuilding off of last week's post entitled "Shut-up & Listen." If you thouht I took ittoo far last week, then what I'm about to espouse below will quiteprobably cause many of you to think "Myatt has finally lostit." That said, I truly believe that the practice ofsales as a business discipline has become at best ineffective, andin many cases flat out obsolete. You see, good business practicesare not static. Stale methodologies and disciplines simply die aslow and very painful death, and it is my contention that theoverwhelming majority of sales processes I see in today'smarketplace are just that...stale. If you want to create revenue,increase customer satisfaction, and drive brand equity, stopselling and start adding value. In the text that follows I'll sharemy thoughts on how the practice of sales must change in order tosurvive.Lest you think I've lost my mind, I want to be clear thatI'm not advocating taking your eye off the revenuecreation ball. Rather what I'm recommending will help yougenerate more revenue, with greater velocity by simply doingthe right thing in putting your client's needs first. I hear a lotof noise about the tough economy, and revenue being down for manycompanies. I hear complaint upon complaint that capital is frozen,and that nobody is closing deals. If you're experiencing this typeof reaction from your client, it's not because they don't havemoney to spend, it's because you're selling and not adding value.It's because you're talking and not listening. It's because youdon't get it...It's not about you, your company, your products oryour services. It's about meeting client needs and addingvalue. The simple truth of the matter is thatthe economy hasn't killed nearly the amount of salesthat arrogant and unprofessional sales people have.The problemwith many sales organizations is that they still operate with thesame principles and techniques they were using in the 60's, 70'sand 80's. While the technology supporting sales process haveclearly evolved, the traditional sales strategies proffered bysales gurus 20 or 30 years ago have not kept pace with marketneeds. They are not nearly as effective as they oncewere, and as I've eluded to, in most cases they are obsolete.Trust me when I tell you that your prospects and clients have heardit all before. They can see the worn-out, old school closescoming a mile away. They can sniff antiquated sellingstrategies, and will immediately tune out on presentations notdeemed relevant. If your sales force is stillFAB-selling, spin-selling, soft-selling or using any number ofoutdated, one size fits all selling methodologies, your salesare suffering whether you realize it or not.Call me crazy, but Idon't want to talk to someone who wants to broker my deal, managemy relationship, develop my business, or engineer my sale. Iwant to communicate with someone who wants to service my needs orsolve my problems. Any organization that still has "sales"titles on their org charts and business cards is living inanother time and place while attempting to do business in a worldthat's already passed them by. It's time for companies torealize that consumers have become very savvy and verydemanding. Today's consumer does their homework, is wellinformed, and buys...they are not sold.Engage me, communicate withme, add value to my business, solve my problems,create opportunity for me, educate me, inform me,but don't try and sell me...it won't work. An attempt tosell me insults my intelligence and wastes my time. Think aboutit...do you like to be sold? News flash...nobody does. Now askyourself this question, do you like to be helped? Most reasonablepeople do. The difference between the two positions while subtle,are very meaningful and powerful. If customer centricity is abuzzword as opposed to the foundation of your corporate culturethen you have some work to do. The reality is that until I knowthat you care more about meeting my needs than yours, you'll remainon the outside looking in. By the way, in order to understand myneeds you have to actually know something about me...The firstthing to do when assessing your sales model is to take agiant step back, and critically examine the currentlandscape. You can't fix a problem that you don't understand, andimplementing change for the sake of change will likely onlymake matters worse. If what you've read thus far evenremotely resonates with you, then I would suggest reading"Don't Negotiate...Facilitate." Teach yoursales force to become true professionals focused on helpingtheir clients for all the right reasons vs. closing the bigdeal for personal benefit. Otherwise you will likely misssubstantial opportunities without even being aware of it.The bottomline is that the most important factor in creating revenue andbuilding brand equity is the client/customer/end-user. If youdon't build everything around theclient, your client relationships will vanish before your veryeyes.