Shallow Sales.
“non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style sales tasks, often performed while distracted. These tactical sales efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
This is an adaption of the shallow work definition from Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work”. It captures the essence of a lot of the work sales professionals do today. Many of the sales tools, processes and methodologies deployed today facilitate this shallow sales work. It appears that the more subscription based, sales software tools that we use, the shallower our work becomes.
Combine this with all of the sales consultants, trainers and best-selling authors telling us the secrets to making sales easier has contributed to the tactical, task-orientated shallow work. You can see the negative impact this approach had on sales productivity. Less than 25% of B2B salespeople made quota in 2023!
Why has everyone been focused on tactics and shallow work?
Because it is easy to measure & manage. Tracking sales activity like the # of phone calls made, emails sent, demos done and power points given is a quantitative exercise. Managing it doesn’t take much skill. The problem is that math alone is a weak predictor of sales performance.
Shallow sales activities will be automated and will bring little value to Buyers in the Age of Intelligence (AI)
Deep Sales.
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.”
This is Cal Newport’s definition of deep work from the same book.
Deep Sales is now the essential skill for Enterprise Sales success.
In a rapidly evolving sales landscape, AI is transforming how the sales function operates. As a Sales Leader, if you could develop one key skill in your team that’s valuable today and future-proof, what would it be? With the pace of business accelerating, it can be difficult to know where to invest in training and coaching. But a critical clue lies in the concept of Deep Sales.
Deep Sales is a capability that emphasizes focused, high-value, and strategic sales activities over shallow, transactional work. Success requires intense focus on creating and driving value in strategic, high-stakes enterprise deals.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman, in his essay just published on September 23rd titled “The Intelligence Age” https://ia.samaltman.com/ reinforces the need for deep sales capability in the world of AI or the Intelligence Age as he labels it.
Describing the impact of AI on work and society he asks “How did we get to the doorstep of the next leap in prosperity? In three words: deep learning worked.”
The same approach applies to enterprise sales.
What is Deep Sales?
Enterprise sales is a high-stakes, strategic field characterized by uncertainty. These deals often involve:
· Multiple decision-makers with diverse priorities
· Highly competitive activities
· Creative value propositions
· Uncertain outcomes that are difficult to forecast
Deep Sales navigates these conditions with skill and sustained effort prioritizing relationship-building and strategic value over purely quantitative outcomes.
“In Deep Sales, the seller is a partner, an advisor, a strategist—not just a transactional closer.”
Why does this matter?
According to Newport’s Deep Work hypothesis, the ability to engage in deep, cognitively demanding work is becoming both rarer and more valuable in our economy. The sales professionals who develop this skill will thrive in an AI-powered world, setting themselves apart as strategic, indispensable partners to their customers and to the companies they work for.
Key Skills of Deep Sales Professionals.
· Quick Mastery of Complex Concepts: This includes rapidly understanding a customer’s unique needs and the ways in which your product can deliver value within that specific context.
· High-Quality, High-Speed Output: They don’t just work quickly; they produce results that meet both high standards and tight deadlines.
· Empathy: Soft skills are indispensable. Hyper-personalization and humanizing the value proposition with your Buyers are critical in working with AI.
Practical Steps to Develop Deep Sales Skills
· Do Deal Workouts.
Dive deep into every aspect of your top opportunities. Assemble an extended team to examine what you know (and don’t know) about each deal. Discuss potential strategies, anticipate obstacles, and brainstorm ways to overcome them.
· Be Creative With Value.
Differentiate yourself by offering unique insights. Research your customer’s industry and find creative applications of your solution that will drive their success. Present a value proposition that is not only tailored to their needs but also anticipates challenges they may face, making you a strategic partner in their journey.
· Go Deep in Customer Discovery.
Practice “three-level discovery” with your prospects. Instead of stopping at the first response, ask follow-up questions that uncover deeper motivations and issues.
· Commit to Your Craft.
Develop a practice of continuous learning. Study your products, pricing, competition, and industry trends.
· Leverage AI.
In the same way that deep learning systems become more capable with data and compute power, Deep Sales professionals can use AI tools to enhance their strategic insights, augmenting their natural abilities to analyze customer needs, predict buyer motivations, and optimize their approach.
· Transform Your Craft Through Depth.
Both deep learning and deep sales exemplify a shift from surface-level engagement to depth-focused mastery. Just as AI models unlock new possibilities through deep learning, sales professionals unlock higher levels of performance by focusing deeply on each sales interaction’s strategic elements—analyzing buyer behavior, anticipating market shifts, and creating value beyond the product itself.
Embracing the Deep Sales Mindset
Deep Sales requires a mindset shift in the sales profession. Many sales activities—calls, emails, CRM updates—are repetitive and transactional. Deep Sales, by contrast, involves carving out focused time for high-value work that generates new insights and strengthens relationships with customers. Successful sales leaders of the future will automate routine tasks but dedicate focused, distraction-free time to deep work.
“The future belongs to those who go beyond surface-level sales and cultivate the skills that are rare, valuable, and irreplaceable.”
Navigation: This was written while listening to Texas Sun by Khruangbin.
Artwork; Holly Pond Sunrise by Nature. Peace.
