Are you a Right-Brained or Left-Brained B2B Sales Professional?

You actually have two brains.

It’s true. Two brains.

The right hemisphere and left hemisphere are essentially two brains that are connected in the middle by the corpus callosum, and if you cut the corpus callosum, each hemisphere could operate on its own. Each hemisphere has dominant functions, with the corpus callosum facilitating communication for ideal operation and balanced skill sets. Unfortunately, many sales professionals act is if they’ve had their corpus callosum cut in half.

The right brain and left brain specialize in different skills and functions.

Left Brain: Language, logic, analytical, reasoning, facts, math and numbers, critical thinking, verbal, reality based, pattern perception, strategic, past and present oriented

Right Brain: Emotion, intuition, creative, imagination, philosophy and art, non-verbal, spatial perception, presents possibilities, holistic, future oriented

Many B2B business development and enterprise sales professionals operate with only half their brain.

Some sales professionals thrive off of their sales quota. They are great at drumming up new business and crunching numbers to strategically create win-win situations that close new accounts today. These are your left-brained enterprise sales professionals. They are great at bringing in new business. Their solution to attrition is the uni-linear logic of out with the old, in with the new.

Other sales professionals build strong relationships with their clients, using creativity and a holistic perspective to look for growth possibilities and potential for new business with their current client pool. These are your right-brained sales professionals that thrive in an account management business development role. They appreciate the multi-dimensional economics involved in calculating that an additional $1000 in sales from a current customer is 4 to 6 times cheaper than acquiring a new customer worth $1000.

Your business may appreciate the specialization, with separate sales divisions that hire the right (or left) hemisphere. But SMBs and large companies would benefit by developing balanced sales skills needed to both close new business clients, and build additional monthly recurring revenue from existing clients.

How do you create balance?

First, we recommend monitoring phone performance with our call tracking and phone performance management tool to understand communication patterns. Second, set strategic goals. Set new revenue goals. Set goals for driving up the MRR or current clients. Sales managers can create bonus or commission structures that incentive a balanced business growth plan and “lateralized” sales skills. Lateralization is the term brain scientists use when the two hemispheres communicate and cooperate.

Create balance and communication between your two brains to be twice as smart, and twice as successful.