Buying is changing. What about selling?

You're feeling dismayed. It's Sunday evening, and you're planning the coming week. After avoiding a difficult conversation for too long now, you pencil in time first thing Monday to have that talk. Your recent new sales hire, four months in, with all the promise, charisma & swagger of an absolute gun, isn't getting the deals done. On paper, and in references they've got a great reputation, and you've brought them on board to lift your growth rate, help you achieve this year's revenue goal. But it's really not working out. What was confidence in their abilities has turned into misgivings of the trust you've placed in them. In debriefs, you're only hearing glass half empty now: and that dismayed feeling is compounded by knowing (it's not your first rodeo) that it's almost impossible to turn their performance around if you don't believe it can be done.

As you reflect on how to avoid this ground hog day again, you try to narrow down why this is happening. Are you hiring badly? Are yesterday's selling skills sufficient for today? Or could it be the pace of change, and intricacies of working in this tech ecosystem have proven too difficult to navigate, too noisy to make head way? Certainly the pandemic hasn't been helpful, but you've heard from the vendor alliances team that their pipeline isn't too bad. So who of your competitors is winning new business, and what are they doing differently?

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My observation, from years of working vendor-side with many partners, is that a lot is left to chance. If the partner lucks-in and hires someone that gets it, it's easy to do business with them, & easier to win. But, all too often, it's the opposite. Unlucky, or a reality check?

Let's remove luck from the equation. What are the learnable skills a salesperson (partner-side) needs in order to win at a reliably higher rate? Below is an overview I've put together based on conversations, observations, & experience.

An obvious omission is 'Trust', but I feel it's a common element to all four circles. Please let me know about your experiences (whether vendor, partner, or even customer side), along with any suggestions for this model.