The Sellability Funnel

Should you be focusing your energy on working in a better market, selling a higher quality product or service, or working to improve your persuasion skills? The answer, of course: it depends. Let's dive in. 

In the perfect world, assuming sales success is the ideal: the market conditions are excellent, you're selling the best product on the market, and you're the most effective seller in the industry. 

Market Conditions > Product/Service Offering > Your Persuasion Skills

Let me tell you about one of my friends who sells FinTech software. He's easily one of the most persuasive sellers I have ever met and he's selling a genuinely phenomenal service that consistently makes his clients money. The problem? It’s FinTech and it’s 2024. We’re living in a time where investors would rather put their money into AI startups and end consumers would rather have their money sit tight in high-yield accounts due to high interest rates. It doesn’t matter that my friend’s persuasion skills and product are excellent— the market conditions are abysmal in his industry and it’s much harder to win under these conditions.

On the other hand, if you look back to 2012 when the entire world was coming online via a mobile phone web experience, Google was all but destined to win in the AdTech space. Anecdotally from an old client, Google sellers of the early 2010s were “notoriously unhelpful … but it didn’t really matter. We needed Google.” The product worked exceptionally well and the businesses desperately needed Google to establish and amplify their online presence. For Google in 2010, the market conditions were phenomenal and winning was nearly unavoidable.

Am I telling you to quit your job and chase the shiny startup in the hottest market right now? Not necessarily. If you did that in 2020 you might have ended up working at FTX thinking you were joining a cutting edge crypto market leader. I’m also not saying you need stellar market conditions to thrive. What I am saying is that, at a minimum, you want to avoid working in an industry that’s in decline (like newspaper publishing or cable TV) that sells outdated products/services. In fact, there’s massive skill-building value in learning to lead a team through a turnaround. But the only time you have control over market conditions— and, largely, what you’re selling— is when you’re applying to jobs. 

If you’re job hunting, choose your next role wisely. Do your research. This applies outside of the sales world and for internal company transfers, too. If you’re leaving sales and going into program management, are the programs you’ll manage impactful and are the programs well respected? How close is this team to driving revenue for the business? If market conditions go south, will this team likely be impacted by layoffs? 

Assess how the Sellability Funnel impacts you now and for a potential future role. Go through the key order of operations: Are the market conditions healthy? Is the product/service best in class? Am I actually good at this? (If not, that’s OK– you can definitely get better). You have immense control over the development of your own persuasion skills; less control over the other two. 

72% of recent job movers were disappointed in their new job compared to their initial expectations,  according to a study from The Muse (source). I’m not convinced these job movers did adequate research before making the move. Fortunately, you read The Action Item and won’t make the same mistake when your time comes for a career move.