Wikipedia gives us a definition of a salesperson:

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. Sales often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salespeople (singular: salesperson). Sales is considered by many to be a sort of persuading “art”. Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.^[2]

Operatives known as salespeople, who understand a methodological approach to selling in a systematic process of “repetitive, measurable, and I am taking the liberty of adding predictable and maintainable milestones”, by which a salesperson relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.

Taking a closer look at each word for a clearer meaning:

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. Sales often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salespeople (singular: salesperson). Sales is considered by many to be a sort of persuading “art”. Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.^[2]

Operatives known as salespeople, who understand a methodological approach to selling in a systematic process of “repetitive, measurable, and I am taking the liberty of adding predictable and maintainable milestones”, by which a salesperson relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.

Taking a closer look at each word for a clearer meaning:

•  Methodological;
  • Models that rely on rational choice theory often adopt methodological individualism, the assumption that social situations or collective behaviors are the result of individual actions.
  • The basic idea of rational choice theory is that patterns of behavior in societies reflect the choices made by individuals as they try to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs. In other words, people make decisions about how they should act by comparing the costs and benefits of different courses of action. As a result, patterns of behavior will develop within the society those results from those choices.

The idea of rational choice, where people compare the costs and benefits of certain actions, is easy to see in economic theory. Since people want to get the most useful products at the lowest price, they will judge the benefits of a certain object (for example, how useful is it or how attractive is it) compared to similar objects. Then they will compare prices (or costs). In general, people will choose the object that provides the greatest reward at the lowest cost.

Rational decision making entails choosing an action given one’s preferences, the actions one could take, and expectations about the outcomes of those actions. Actions are often expressed as a set, for example a set of j exhaustive and exclusive actions:

For example, if a person is to vote for either Roger or Sara or to abstain, their set of possible voting actions is:

            A = {Roger,Sara,abstain}

Individuals can also have similar sets of possible outcomes.

Rational choice theory makes two assumptions about individuals’ preferences for actions:

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    • Completeness – all actions can be ranked in an order of preference (indifference between two or more is possible).
    • Transitivity – if action a₁ is preferred to a₂, and action a₂ is preferred to a₃, then a₁ is preferred to a₃.

Together these assumptions form the result that given a set of exhaustive and exclusive actions to choose from, an individual can rank them in terms of her preferences, and that her preferences are consistent.

An individual’s preferences can also take forms:

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    • Strict preference occurs when an individual prefers a₁ to a₂, but not a₂ to a₁.
    • In some models, a weak preference can be held in which an individual has a preference for at least a_j, similar to the mathematical operator ≤.
    • Indifference occurs when an individual does not prefer a₁ to a₂, or a₂ to a₁.

In more complex models, other assumptions are often incorporated, such as the assumption of independence axiom. Also, with dynamic models that include decision-making over time, time inconsistency may affect an individual’s preferences.

• Systematic Process;
  • The American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) defines Performance Improvement as “the process of identifying and analyzing important organizational and individual performance gaps, planning for future performance improvement, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non-financial results.”
  • Criteria to Judge Human Performance Technology (HTP), Is focused on valuable, measured results;

1.     Considers the larger system context of people’s performance;

2.     Provides valid and reliable measures of the effectiveness of those applications.

3.     Clearly describes applications grounded in prior research or empirical evidence (or are not discouraged by either one) so that they may be replicated under the conditions and by the means for which they were recommended.

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    • When stated this way, intuition and respected practice are permitted and encouraged (provided they meet the first three criteria) without scientific evidence provided that there is no research evidence that it may not work under the conditions or by the means where it is being recommended.
    • Our definition of human performance is: “those valued results produced by people working within a system.”

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  • Assumptions:

1.   A technology is a set of empirical and scientific principles and their application.

2.   Human Performance Technology is the technology concerned with all variables which           impact human performance.

3.   All organizational processes and practices impact the production of valued results,               or not the results are acknowledged or desirable.)

4.   The purpose of all organizations is the same: to create value for their stakeholders; this                  of that value.

5.     We collaborate with and value the expertise of other disciplines; human performance technology becomes the integrator and multiplier.

HPT can become the leverage organizations need to increase improved performance and focus on results using a variety of means and methods. HPT is the multiplier factor for Performance Improvement.

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  • Standards of practice;

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    • The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) codified a series of standards in an effort to raise the quality of HPT practice:

·         Focus on Results

·         Take a Systems View

·         Add Value

·         Utilize Partnerships

·         Systematic Assessment of Need or Opportunity

·         Systematic Cause Analysis

·         Systematic Design

·         Systematic Development

·         Systematic Implementation

·         Systematic Evaluation

• Repetitive;

From Latin repetitionem (accusative singular of repetitio) Noun

1.     The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated.

      Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the middle of every clause.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed…” (Second Epistle to the Corinthians)

• Measureable;

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  • In mathematics the concept of a measure generalizes notions such as “length”, “area”, and “volume” (but not all of its applications have to do with physical sizes). Informally, given some base set, a “measure” is any consistent assignment of “sizes” to (some of) the subsets of the base set. Depending on the application, the “size” of a subset may be interpreted as (for example) its physical size, the amount of something that lies within the subset, or the probability that some random process will yield a result within the subset. The main use of measures is to define general concepts of integration over domains with more complex structure than intervals of the real line. Such integrals are used extensively in probability theory, and in much of mathematical analysis.

• Predictable;

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  • Predict, prophesy, foresee, forecast mean to know or tell (usually correctly) beforehand what will happen. To predict is usually to foretell with precision of calculation, knowledge, or shrewd inference from facts or experience. 

• Maintainable;

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  • —Synonyms 1. continue. 1, 2. keep up. 4. asseverate. Maintain, assert, aver, allege, hold, state all mean to express an opinion, judgment, or position. Maintain carries the implications of both firmness and persistence in declaring or supporting a conviction.

1.     To keep up or carry on; continue: maintain good relations.

2.     To keep in an existing state; preserve or retain: maintain one’s composure.

3.     To keep in a condition of good repair or efficiency: maintain two cars.

4.     To defend or hold against criticism or attack: maintained his stand on taxes.

5.     To declare to be true; affirm: maintained her innocence.

6.     To adhere or conform to; keep: maintain a busy schedule.

Having gained a complete understanding of a salesperson, we need to ask ourselves the hard question, do we in fact have sales people working for us? If we don’t, what steps should be taken to resolve the situation?

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