I recently attended and spoke at the Association of Marketing Service Providers (AMSP) winter conference and a great deal of time was spent discussing the need for a new generation of sales professionals. Industry executives are noticeably struggling with the challenge of re-defining what these folks look like and where to find them. Companies in a multitude of industries are confronting this challenge because there are numerous forces at play. In fact we are experiencing a “Perfect Storm” when it comes to attracting, recruiting, hiring and coaching our next generation of sales professionals.

As buying/purchasing behavior is changing so is the role of the sales professional. In many ways technology has leveled the playing field when it comes to making purchasing decisions. Buyers have access to so much more information today; long before they speak to a sales person. In the past the sales person was the source of information regarding their products and processes but in order to remain relevant in the future, they must play a very different role . And while transactional business will continue as products and services are commoditized, most of those purchases can be automated through technology and the sales person role (and cost) can be eliminated or at least minimized.

There has been a great deal of discussion about the book “The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson because of the research they conducted and the insights they provided. The authors identified five different types of sales people: