Hamish Newlands provides some un-lessons in Complex Sale-s

• Unlesson One: All salespeople are wall-eyed lying psychos... Another factor is that many organisations that undertake complex sales like to have a layer of abrasive tissue between the real sales team and the real client that they can rub off once they have used them to do the occasional unpleasant task that would spoil the real relationship. These people do have the name of salespeople, but given their incentives to keep short term revenue flowing, and given their lack of knowledge about what they are actually doing we need a new name for them. Let's call them [Quarter Hacks]. Once a quarter they are sent to ask for money from various clients, and this can be done, rude as it is, often, without tarnishing the reputation of the main people in the selling organisation.

• Unlesson Two: I don't work in Sales.

• Unlesson Three: We have sales people to do sales. You have [Quarter Hacks]. They are important, but they are not your long terms sales force. The pint swilling lads in the pub with the flash cars who go and visit the customers look like the public face of the organisation, but except in rare cases, they are often only the messengers of the organisation's real sales people, especially in complex sales situations.

• Unlesson Four: Our marketing department takes the place of the sales force. In other words, marketing is what you do when you cannot afford to have a direct contact.

• Unlesson Five: Engineering doesn't need Sales

• Unlesson Six: Selling is an Anathema in [Professional Service]-s

• Unlesson Seven: I work in Service and Support. In most complex sales situations, the initial sale represents a fraction of the overall investment over the lifecycle of the relationship... Thus, the people who work in support are going to be major guardians of the revenues of the organisation.

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