and what software vendors need instead
Software companies regularly invest in sales training.
Solution Selling. ROI Selling. Value Based Selling. Reference Based Selling etc.
The list is long.
The expectation: More deals. Higher close rates. Shorter sales cycles.
The reality? After 3–6 months, hardly anything from the training is still visible.
Why?
The real problem: Lack of implementation in the actual sales cycle
In the workshop, the atmosphere is excellent:
- New methods
- Motivated team
- Clear models
- Enthusiastic management
But then what almost always happens occurs: Daily business takes over.
Without guided implementation in the real opportunity process, what was learned dissipates. Theory does not replace operational excellence.
It becomes particularly critical when sales management itself has never learned to lead sales systematically.
The “Peter Principle” in software sales
In many software companies, the most successful salesperson is promoted to sales manager.
Problem: Top performers in closing are rarely automatically good sales managers.
The roles differ fundamentally:
| Individual Sales | Sales Management |
| Win your own deals | Make the team systematically more successful |
| Ego-driven closing | Coaching, structure, scaling |
| Short-term success | Sustainable process development |
If this transformation does not succeed, the manager remains operationally in lone-wolf mode.
The result:
- “No-brainer” deals are taken over personally
- Team does not learn
- Forecast remains unreliable
- Scaling does not occur
No workshop in the world solves this structural problem—if no one guides the implementation.
Failure: When the fox guards the henhouse!
Why traditional training falls flat for software vendors
Software sales is complex:
- Long decision cycles
- Multiple stakeholders
- Technical evaluations
- ROI argumentation
- Proof of Concepts
- Contract negotiations
An external trainer who only teaches methods but does not:
- Look at your pipeline
- Analyze your proposals
- Accompany your workshops
- Reflect on your negotiations
… cannot make a lasting difference.
It is like cooking:
A cooking instructor who only teaches theory but does not taste the dish cannot make fine adjustments and then teach this to their students.
In software sales, these fine adjustments determine success or failure.
The crucial difference: Practical guidance instead of theoretical instruction
For over 40 years, I have worked in development, consulting, and sales, nationally and internationally. From the perspective of the software vendor and since 2005 from the perspective of client companies.
What distinguishes me, however, is not sales experience alone.
But rather:
- 80+ digitalization projects on the client side
- Sales and client projects in 25+ countries worldwide
- Hundreds of reviewed proposals
- Accompanied negotiations including contract review
- Workshops from the client’s perspective
- Management of implementation projects
I know not only the vendor perspective. I know the decision logic of buyers.
I know:
- Why proposals lose
- Why workshops fail
- Why PoCs (Proof of Concepts) do not convince
- Why supposedly strong arguments fall flat
- Why implementations fail etc.
And this is exactly where my work begins.
Success: When the prospect is already enthusiastic in the workshop!
Always be the first to receive the latest news, interviews, and expert articles?
What software vendors really need: not the 100th sales workshop.
But rather:
- Analysis of your real opportunities
- Optimization of your proposal structure
- Improvement of your workshop strategy
- Adjustment of your value argumentation
- Coaching of your sales management
- Continuous guidance over several months
- Integration of feedback from prospects and clients
Theory and practice must merge.
Only then do you achieve:
- higher win rates
- better deal quality
- shorter sales cycles
- more stable forecasts
- scalable sales processes
The uncomfortable truth
If you continue to rely exclusively on traditional sales training, you are wasting potential.
Your competitors are professionalizing.
Clients are becoming more demanding.
Consultants on the client side strategically influence decisions.
Those who only work with methods from books will lose in the medium term.
If you are serious
If you want to know:
- Where your pipeline has structural weaknesses
- Why certain deals stagnate
- How your sales processes appear from the client’s perspective
- How you can systematically become more successful
Then start with a free initial consultation.
There we will clarify:
- Your current situation
- Your objectives
- And whether practice-guided collaboration makes sense for you
Schedule an appointment here via the link.
Details on the approach can be found here via the link!
You can book the next workshop. Or you can begin to truly transform your sales.
Success: This is what winners look like!
Image source: ChatGPT
