You work hard at your job, and sales reps workhard at theirs. They follow detailed sales methodologies designed totake advantage of buyers' inexperience and emotions. Some attendseminars like the Software Sales Rep Boot Camp, which is regularly runby a Boston-based training company called Provant. In April, Darwinsat in on Boot Camp in Durham, N.C., as two dozen software sales repsgathered to learn "how to negotiate without caving in on price," and"how to shorten the sales cycle."

Boot Camp has a 20-year track record, and Edd Brown, the Durhamsession's drill sergeant, says it's about honorable selling. Ittransmogrifies statistics about buyers' habits into scripted tactics.For example, scripts called capability visions prompt the buyer tostate her problem in a way that suggests the salesperson's softwarecan fix it.

Reps also learn how to shorten the sales cycle; they're taught toencourage customers to sign the final contract at a draft proposalmeeting - before they "have their negotiation shoes on," as Brown putsit. Brown firmly believes Boot Camp is about creating win-winsituations for vendor and seller. He also says plainly, "We're goingto help you pull [buyers'] pain from the back of their mind and put itin the forefront. Sales is a hurt-and-rescue operation. You're hurtingthem in order to rescue them. But you have to hurt themfirst."

Of course, the best sales reps deftly walk a complex, sometimescontradictory line between being the customer's "partner" and being asalesperson with quotas to meet. Paul Bayne, a salesman who has soldboth ERP and CRM packages, is one such rep.

Bayne advocates for most of his colleagues' honor,insisting that software failures emerge as much (or more)from unfocused buyers as from aggressive sales. He hasattended workshops like Boot Camp and says they're reallyabout getting the buyer to understand his needsclearly. Through this process, Bayne says he has evenrecommended that prospects purchase software he doesn't sell- and ended up getting business from them later on. Still,Bayne says he has also witnessed salespeople who wouldfabricate functionality or availability to get the buyer tosign on the dotted line. Think Alec Baldwin in GlengarryGlen Ross.