From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
I recently enjoyed your presentation on Time Span at a Vistage meeting. I’m curious about your thoughts on the success of Stratum I or II Sales or Account Execs selling to Stratum III or IV buyers?

Response:
Time Span helps us measure all kinds of things including matching people in the sales process. Here is a (very) raw rule of thumb in the sales process.

• Stratum I – Order Taking, matching features and benefits customer needs, very trainable.
• Stratum II – Relationship building, for those sales where there is risk in the selection of a vendor, where the selection criteria may rest in trust, integrity, reliability. Often the Time Span associated with this sales cycle is longer than three months.
• Stratum III – Engineered solutions. Where the criteria for vendor selection may not be apparent or may require some analysis. This analysis may start with a customer needs assessment to determine the precise nature of the problem, then perhaps testing to determine if the solution is viable.
• Stratum IV – Integrated solutions. Where the selected solution not only impacts the specific problem, but will also impact other systems surrounding the problem. This is the world of unintended consequences that must be explored.

It is easy to see each of these levels when we think about Time Span. Now, pit a Stratum I salesperson with a Stratum IV buyer and you can see the mismatch from the get-go. They speak a different language, use different buying criteria and may appear not to like each other. Sales consultants would lead you down the road of personality testing to resolve this conflict, or suggest that the conversation start around a fishing trophy on the wall of the customer. Both are ineffective strategies.

Matching the Time Span of the salesperson with the Time Span of the customer (buyer) makes for a more productive conversation, a more effective selling process.