What Mozart Can Teach Your Team About (Successful) Sales
By Jason Keever 
There’s a tug-of-war occurring on sales teams across the globe.
One side of the rope is comprised of numbers-driven sales managers who view sales through a scientific lens. If their companies’ forecasted opportunities are continually slipping from one quarter to the next, they turn to analytics to create and enforce new processes that aim to increase the predictability of revenue.
The other side of the rope is made up of sales representatives who insist sales is more of an art form. They prioritize the individual needs of each client, and they are hesitant to embrace arbitrary, one-size-fits-all processes that might distort the natural buying cycle. How can they be artists if they’re told to treat every canvas the same?
When these two sides can’t see eye to eye on this topic, communication breaks down and sales goals go unreached.
The Mozart Model
This stalemate has been reached for a good reason: Both sides are correct. For evidence of why, look no further than one of the greatest artists who ever lived.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart started composing music when he was 5 years old, and in his 30-year career, he created 600-plus pieces of music. That’s more than 20 compositions a year — and we’re not talking about short, simple pop songs; we’re talking about intricate, hour-long symphonies. 
Even if Mozart was an artistic genius, there is no way he achieved that incredible level of productivity without adopting a predictable, repeatable process to enhance his creativity and boost his numbers.
Your sales staff can take this same approach by becoming “sales Mozarts” who embrace art and science in their day-to-day lives. These top performers will see science as a tool bag of tricks; important items they can pull out to enhance and advance customer engagement. The artistic side of their jobs is their intuition — their ability to listen, assess, and adjust to create fully aligned sales experiences.
Through trial and error, sales Mozarts combine art and science to create their own efficient (and effective) processes.
Making a Sales MozartMozart didn’t start off his composition career by improvising melodies for queens and lords. Rather, he learned the science of composition at a young age, worked to master the craft, and then let his artistry take him to another level of production.
Similarly, one does not become a sales Mozart overnight. It’s an ongoing process — one that may even take years — and it can be broken down into four stages:
Stage 1: A Scientific Foundation — Regardless of a person’s experience level, everyone must begin at a stage that strictly emphasizes and enforces the science of selling. Without a scientific foundation, a seller cannot fully understand his company, its products, or the market he’s selling to. Consider this stage to be one in which your sellers are unconsciously incompetent; they don’t know what they don’t know. They will need to rely heavily on science to dictate their actions. Start with the basics from day one. Identify HR forms your seller should fill out, hardware to install, co-workers to meet, and other key tasks to complete during a 30- to 90-day ramp-up period. One of my clients concludes this stage with something he calls “showtime” — a test in which a seller completes a pitch and a sales call for his executive team. Be sure to closely assess the progress of your sellers during this stage. Are they moving toward success, or are warning signs present that reaching Mozart status just isn’t in the cards for them?
Stage 2: A Raised Awareness — Over time, abiding by science will make your sellers aware of what they don’t know, and your best employees will begin to dig deeply and work to further their awareness of your company and its sales mission. In other words, your new sellers are now consciously incompetent. Your best ones will break from the pack and raise their knowledge, while your poorer performers will gravitate toward their comfort zones and mediocrity. Playbooks on how to engage with customers will be your new sellers’ best friends at this stage. Also, your highest-performing sales teams should take them under their wings and teach them the ins and outs — identifying which techniques tend to work with target customers and which do not. New sellers may still feel nervous about flying solo on sales calls, but the sooner they take the plunge and make mistakes, the sooner they’ll be ready to succeed.
Stage 3: Second Nature — At this stage, the sellers who are most engaged in the process will be gaining experience with their knowledge and moving into conscious competence. They’re quickly learning what to do and how to do it. The science at this point becomes more like a virtual coach: It’s still there, but it’s seen as a trusty guide. Sellers no longer need heavy-handed training; rather, they need gentle nudges of opportunity-specific guidance. Technology integrated into the seller’s CRM can easily serve up some coaching via video examples or quick reminders of assets to use with customers.
Stage 4: Unleashing the Inner Mozart — Finally, the rigor and structure of science will begin to fall away. It will become an internalized and natural part of life. The seller, now a continual, predictable revenue generator, has fully released his or her inner artist and become a full-fledged sales Mozart. You’ve reached the final stage: unconscious competence. Take a look at the analytics, and see what makes your Mozarts tick. Which messaging do they share with customers? What prospect types do they focus on? Reviewing their notes can help you bottle up the good stuff and pass it on to your next batch of new sellers. The trick with this final stage is to never fully disengage with your sales Mozarts. Always keep in mind that your company, your competitors, and the market are continually evolving, and you should constantly be launching new revenue initiatives that impact your sellers. These could include new products, new go-to market strategies, mergers and acquisitions, or simply new messaging. Consider this to be an ongoing “reboarding” of your sellers. Although it shouldn’t be as involved and in-depth as your primary onboarding program, it should provide the same outcome as this four-stage progression — only on your new initiative.
As a sales manager, it’s not your job to create rules and demand results. Rather, it’s your job to train and develop competent sellers who deliver results. 
Creating a team of sales Mozarts will send you down this path and resolve the ongoing tug-of-war that’s been holding your company back.
 
Jason Keever is the U.K. country manager of SAVO, a high-growth SaaS software provider. He’s tasked with launching, growing, and managing SAVO’s EMEA operations. Previously, he was the top-performing sales rep for several years and a repetitive member of SAVO’s President’s Club. As a boot-wearing Texan living in London, Jason has filled two passports and is bilingual in English and Spanish. He is a happy husband and a delighted father of two. You can contact Jason through Twitter or LinkedIn.