In 1964 the Harvard Business Review published a seminal article on the characteristics of a good salesman. Research then showed that two traits, empathy and ego drive – or "the need to conquer" – were equally important to sales success.

In the last three decades there has been a shift in buyer/seller relationships in business-to-business marketing. This has led to the need for more empathy and less ego drive in the successful salesman.

This is most noticeable in high-value sales where a continuing relationship between the counterparties is fundamental to the success of the transaction. Both full-time and occasional buyers are now more sophisticated in the technical aspects of purchasing and in the psychology of the buy/sell process. They know that salesmen are taught about the importance of "pushing" techniques such as trial closes, and are not so much wary as weary of them. And good buyers will be seeking not just the best deal for their company, but a deal which also motivates the supplier to perform. So they are seeking a dialogue with the salesman which establishes a clear understanding of what they need, what he is capable of delivering, and how closely they match.

The changing role of the salesman
The salesman's traditional role has been to "push" products or services. To be successful in the new buying environment he must reject this role and instead concentrate on identifying clients' needs which his company and its services are well placed to satisfy. In doing so he will be able to establish an enduring relationship with the buyer to the mutual benefit of both organisations.

Skills shortage
Why are so many companies short of sales personnel equipped with the skills needed for this changing role? First their criteria for choosing salesmen may have been too heavily weighted towards ego drive, and second, sales training has not developed along with the relationship between supplier and purchaser. The good news is that many salesmen will respond to retraining in the new techniques of relationship sales. Moreover, people who have not been considered appropriate because of their "lack of aggression", could well become extremely successful in today's sales roles.

What should be done?
If you are concerned about the effectiveness of the techniques employed by your salesforce, you need an audit of sales skills to determine whether they are appropriate in your market. If your salesmen are short on relationship building techniques, you should consider sales training, concentrating on questioning and listening skills. Finally it has become a well-worn cliche to point out that anyone in a company who communicates with customers is a sales person, and therefore needs to acquire the skills of understanding customer needs. In a recent survey we undertook for a client, we found that poor sales performance was not due to the salesmen, but to the over-aggressive techniques of both the Chairman and the Managing Director!