"Selling is a science, not an art...And can be learned". This is one of the main messages of the conference that ESADE´s visiting professor, Kenneth Morse, an expert in business innovation, offered today at the Parc Cientific de Barcelona (PCB) before an audience of over 150 people. The session was organized by Meteosim, AWS Truepower, ESADE and PCB.

Morse, founder and director for 13 years of the world´s largest center for entrepreneurs, MIT Entrepreneurship Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), conducted an interactive presentation where the audience played a very important role. He framed his speech on innovation and global sales strategies, explaining how these two concepts have to go hand in hand for a new product or service to be successful and shared key issues to guide entrepreneurial activity, vertical market approach and management and sales processes.

Esade´s visiting professor started his conference by offering his views on the differentiating factor that makes a company competitive. That requires “a highly qualified and experienced team (an “A” Team), the best technology that allows us to renew ourselves and adapt to new times, and the creation of a unique value that is quantifiable, verifiable, and referenceable as well as easy to explain”.

During his presentation, Morse defined the concept of “sales” as understanding the customer needs and creating products and services tailored to these needs. “Listening is the first step to sell. Clients will feel they have a relationship with you only when they believe that you understand their needs, their situation, their vision, their constraints, their corporate goals, and  their career goals. I do not think it is right to start a meeting with a demonstration of the product, because you may not need such product. Do not sell the person what he or she does not need”. Within this context, Professor Morse devoted a significant amount of his presentation to describe relations of the “Jury” or Decision Making Unit (DMU, for its acronym in English) with the build-up and management of the sales force.

Finally, before starting the questions and answers round, the founder of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center said that one of the main challenges for technology companies is that the projects developed in the laboratory reach the market. Morse concluded his presentation with a reflection he shared with the participants: “Innovation is invention plus commercialization; inventors need to team up with entrepreneurs to find customers”.