How can sales leaders balance the seller’s need for flexibility with the manager’s need for defined standards for selling? In November 2013, Harvard Business Review published an article entitled “Dismantling the Sales Machine,” which asserted that reliance on defined selling process discipline for engaging with customers was no longer effective. Instead, the authors suggested sellers should focus on providing buyers with flexibility, insights, and results unconstrained by the rigor of traditional process limitations. Since that article’s debut a decade ago, buyers have even more access to information about prospective solutions, making them increasingly knowledgeable and empowered. In addition, the number of people involved in organizational purchase decisions has expanded.

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