I recently had an interesting chat with my friend Ben Baldwin, the co-founder of ClearFit, about sales. Ben is a great sales person, and he believes selling is a science and not an art.  Here’s what he told PathWorks:

PathWorks: Ben, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

To set the record straight, I don’t think I’m a good salesperson — I work with great products that sell themselves.  I am, however, good at getting people excited to try the products.

I started my first software company in 1999.  It applied highly sophisticated behavioral assessment software that we created with a bunch of PhDs to help big companies hire people who fit their cultures.  Over the past 13 years, I’ve helped hundreds of companies select thousands of employees, on 5 continents.  Then I realized that no hiring solution existed for small or growing businesses, so we created ClearFit — for anyone to use.  ClearFit is the only solution that makes it easy for absolutely anyone to find and hire the best person for their business — or as we say: ClearFit “fixes hiring.”

PW: Why do you believe selling is a science and not an art? 

Sales is a predictable, repeatable process that has measurable outcomes.  Over time, sales organizations develop sales processes, scripts and metrics that work in their jobs.  The variable component that seems to throw people off is the salesperson’s behavior, but we know this to be a science and not an art as well.  It’s actually quite easy to predict future behavior if you have the right tool.  That’s why we created a tool that predicts employment success: ClearFit.

PW: Do you think anyone can be successful in sales? 

No.  A salesperson needs the right personality and motivation to succeed on the job … and there are several types of sales roles to boot.  For instance, it takes a different type of person to sell a low-cost appliance than a high-cost service.

PW: Do you think sales tactics or approaches have changed over the years?   

The consumer is definitely more educated, so “old school” sales techniques don’t work all the time.

PW: What 3 pieces of advice would you give to anyone in sales? 

1. Make sure you’re the right fit for your job;
2. You’d better enjoy being rejected, because you’ll get rejected more frequently than making a sale (and if you don’t you’re not pushing yourself enough);
3. Don’t blame others or the product: be the product.

So that’s Ben’s take on selling as a science. What do you think? Is sales a science or an art? Let us know in the comments below.

Melanie Benwell is the Managing Director of PathWorks Personnel and sometimes blogger.  Check out her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.