Sales Success Key # 6 -- Pattern Recognition Skills

You recognize patterns all day, every day. When a situation you’ve seen before arises yet again, you probably know what’s going on and you probably know how to address it. If a colleague says there’s a certain problem that pertains to your area of expertise, you know what to do about it. Perhaps your child comes crying to you about something that’s happened time and time again—you know exactly what’s going on and you know what to say or do. Or your friend plays out behaviour you’ve seen before, you recognize it for what it is, and either address it or go about your day.

I think it was the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead who once said, “Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.” In other words, when you get good at something, you don’t rethink it every time the matter arises; you address it somewhat on automatic pilot so your attention can go to bigger and better things.

Similarly, experienced salespeople recognize patterns in client situations or selling opportunities and can crank out success with their eyes closed. Really good sales people recognize more complex patterns—situations filled with nuance—and they stickhandle with ease around all the obstacles and the details.

Some salespeople are better than others at recognizing patterns and responding appropriately. How come?

Basically, smarts, experience, and training. There is ample evidence that somebody with a high IQ is faster at recognizing patterns and more able to detect complex ones. It’s self evident that experienced people have, well, experience going for them. And when a salesperson is well trained on the patterns of client situations, in terms of what they are, how to uncover them, and how to address them, that salesperson will be more effective.

For example, a salesman who “gets it” might recognize through a quick conversation with a prospective customer exactly what features and benefits of his products he’ll need to highlight in a formal proposal in order to differentiate himself. He’ll also, from that one conversation, be able to predict what objections the buyer is going to get from her own organization and what it will take to equip her with ammunition to counter those objections.

Of course, recognizing patterns is also the root of bias. When we too quickly judge something to fit into one pattern, we might miss critical details. “Oh, I’ve seen this before,” our unconscious minds quickly conclude. And bingo, we screw up.

When sales trainers go to cocktail parties and get a little tipsy they are known to chat with each other about the trade. One might ask another, “Do you teach salespeople to go looking for certain problems or d’you teach ‘em to go in with an open mind?” The other might reply, “Upsides and downsides, my friend; upsides and downsides. But it sounds like you’re new to the game. Hey Billie,” he hollers across the room, “this guy’s a newbie!”