A new paradigm for sales: Whitten & Roy Partnership calls for a more socially-minded and human-centered way of selling for the well-being of people and environment

• Sales consultancy seeks to untangle long-held belief that successful selling must involve negative methods.
• New paradigm for sales influenced by Prof Dr Ervin Laszlo’s work at the prestigious The Laszlo Institute of New-Paradigm Research.
• Aim to turn sales from ‘dark art’ to business service conducted with ethical pride and high morals.
• Move away from ‘pitching and persuading’ to clients making more informed buying decisions and sales people accessing tools to tap into their natural abilities.

International sales consultancy Whitten & Roy Partnership makes a case for the need of a new paradigm in sales to re-focus on the well-being of the employees and customers in addition to financial profitability.

The shift in sales ethics and management practices would offer both sellers and buyers the possibility of collaboration instead of competition, and education instead of persuasion and manipulation.

Roy Whitten, co-director of Whitten & Roy Partnership, explains: “Without a doubt, sales results matter. But, in order to have maximum impact, they must be the right results: those that support double- or triple-bottom line benefits of economic, social and/or environmental prosperity."

The belief for a new paradigm was much influenced by Whitten & Roy’s Partnership’s collaboration with leading international research organization, The Laszlo Institute of New-Paradigm Research, founded and led by the renowned philosopher, academic, author and two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Ervin Laszlo.

Prof Dr Ervin Laszlo says: “At the Laszlo Institute, we are committed to bringing a deeper level of consciousness to the world. I am grateful for the application of the new paradigm that Whitten & Roy Partnership is bringing to business. It is critical that the interconnectedness of all things be reflected and respected in the way we offer our goods and services to each other.”

With regards to the new thinking about sales, Roy Whitten continues: “This transformational sales approach requires not only measuring outputs - the actual sales results - but also to focusing on the right inputs that enable sales people and their customers to develop and thrive. This approach can bring significant changes to three critical areas of a sales person’s effectiveness: attitude, competence, and execution.

At the core of the debate lies this problem: over many years, people have believed that selling requires methods – including those at the negative end of the spectrum - that talk clients into, even manipulate them into, buying things they don’t necessarily want or need – all in the name of achieving financial results.

Scott Roy, co-director of Whitten & Roy Partnership, expands: “For too long selling has been considered as a ‘dark art’ involving negative methods to achieve results. But we believe that selling can be done with ethical pride and high morals. This often involves turning what people believe about selling on its head.”

The more human-centered sales approach that Whitten & Roy Partnership is advocating focuses on conversations between sellers and buyers that empower buyers to make the best possible decision for their business. These conversations focus first on understanding fully the range of problems to be solved and the cost of leaving them unsolved. This approach stands in stark contrast to the “pitching and persuading” techniques that focus on selling the solution.

Furthermore, a more human-centered approach not only involves the way clients are treated, but also the way sales staff is supported by managers. Whitten & Roy Partnership have found that, when organizations focus on the well-being of their people and their customers, they can achieve greater results where everybody wins: sales people enjoy their work, clients get a solution that works and managers achieve the results they are after.

Well-being means giving sales people and managers new tools to access their natural ability. For instance, skills that enable a state of present-moment awareness enables sales people to focus on customer needs, tap into everyone's deep desire to succeed, and maintain a genuinely positive state of mind that creates new possibilities instead of stress, pressure and adversity. New capacities, such as these, need to be at heart of any development program for sales professionals and their management. In this regard key support and investment areas are: training, performance management, team structure, mentoring, and remuneration.

Roy Whitten says: “At the end of the day, you only get what you give to your sales staff and managers. Skipping on things like well-being of the team and their professional development is false economy.”

Since 2009 Whitten & Roy Partnership has helped socially minded businesses sell life-changing products and manage their people in an ethical way in over 125 projects, through a team of over 50 international consultants. The company has worked in over 40 countries, many of which are located in the developing world.

The company works closely with a range of prestigious foundations, such as the Ashden Foundation, the Stone Family Foundation, the Mulago Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Shell Foundation, and others, to assist their clients in developing their ability to sell well and in a way that aligns with the ethical standards of mission-oriented organizations.

EDITORS' NOTES

About Whitten & Roy Partnership:

Whitten & Roy Partnership is an international sales consultancy that helps leading businesses and organizations transform their sales results. Founded in 2009 by sales experts Roy Whitten and Scott Roy, Whitten & Roy Partnership today comprises a network of consultants operating in 40 countries around the world.

Drawing on several decades of sales experience in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, and with a background in psychology and business development, Whitten & Roy Partnership offers an ethical sales approach that is fit for use by socially minded organizations that are genuinely concerned with the well-being of their own people and the clients they serve. For more information visit: www.wrpartnership.com

About The Laszlo Institute of New-Paradigm Research:

The Laszlo Institute of New-Paradigm Research (L-INPR) is to make a meaningful contribution through understanding of the fundamental nature of the world, and through this understanding to contribute to wellbeing in the world. It pursues this mission through research on the concepts, principles and worldviews emerging in the sciences, and developing their applications to fields of human interest. For more information visit: www.laszloinstitute.com