The terms "Advertising Sales" and "Technical Sales" are of my own coinage, (so it may be pretty understandable if the concept is not all that clear to some folks) and the salesperson John is describing I would have called an "Advertising Salesperson".
As I see the 'problem' (and "problem" may not be the correct concept) with his approach, which may have been very successful in the past, is that what he was really doing was "taking the gravy" (the "nugget of gold") and credit for sales, yet he was really only creating problems for "his Calvary", that someone else had to have taken the time to learn the skill (the technical sales side) and "eat the tough meat", so to speak, that he had failed to master, to make him look good and be successful.
The other side of that same coin is that (in my opinion) knowing what you don't know and being able to admit it, is -almost- as important as knowing it, since no-one knows it all.
One of the other reasons in my starting this thread was to also get some clues as to how a salesperson doing "advertising sales" can figure out who is the true "decision maker" or is it mainly just looking at a persons title on the business card.
I would also like to know how a salesperson sees the importance of moving the sales process from "advertising" to "technical" (or does the customer do that, after the need is identified), and how important it is for them to learn the technical side of the sale.
I would instantly agree that both kinds of sales are important in this industry,
I would also like to hear if salespeople feel that the technical side is becoming more or less important as Industrial trucks become more a commodity than a specialty item, or even if industrial trucks are becoming more of a commodity type item.