Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle of Sales

People often use the term “scientific” to imply that something is tried, tested & replicable. Certain chemicals when mixed in certain proportions produce a particular scent. This is scientific. Whether one likes a scent or not, is not scientific.

But there’s a whole lot more to science. Quantum mechanics (QM) is full of uncertainty. I’ve never quite fully comprehended many of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. One thing that is pretty clear even at the surface is that QM implies uncertainty in what we can know.

An example is the well known Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle which tells us that it’s not possible to know with precision both the position and velocity of a particle.

Based on experiences and conversations with many wise people in b2b sales & marketing, it seems that complex deals also follow the same principle.

It’s very difficult to know with precision both the current status (position) and realistic close date (velocity) of a deal in early stages.

The key here is the word ‘precision’. Of course, one can estimate a close date (in fact, most CRMs won’t let you create an opportunity without a close date). Estimates aren’t very reliable and proof comes when sales forecasts are missed. It’s surprisingly difficult to truly know the current status as well.

I don’t think any technology can fully solve this because of the fundamental uncertainty in life (and physics). There can, however, be an order of magnitude improvement from current state at most companies using tools like SalesTing.

Whether one chooses to use technology or not, it’s worth reminding ourselves about the “scientific” nature of sales and having the right mindset about it.