Yes I said it. In fact, I’m proud of it. I don’t hide it or shy away from it. I’ve learned to embrace it. I use to think it was a bad thing. The word ‘sale’ just seems to have a bad connotation to it. Then I realized something. For me, the light went on. That is based on the past. We are humans, we evolve. However you want to look at it, either learning from mistakes or the genetic standpoint, we are always changing. We change as individuals and we change as a species.
Sales has evolved as well. It will continue to evolve. Unfortunately, for some people it will evolve at a different pace than for others. In fact, there are so many different levels of sales today that maybe we need a different name for it. Maybe we break it down by relationships. We have learned from the mistakes of the door-to-door salesman, and the cold caller and the used car guy. Well some of us have. We as humans have this great thing inside our heads that allows us to learn that if something isn’t working we can fix it or that we can improve on things we already do. It is this change, learning and ability to adapt that make us successful and if you believe in karma (as I do) then there is definitely a right way to do things.
Why am I telling you this…last week I sent this e-mail to the best sales trainer I know.
Rick:
I hope you enjoyed your new year’s and the holiday season treated you well. From last time we talked I’m guessing your pretty busy. I read this blog post Why Sales People Suck and of course it made me think of you. I was going to write a post on sales relationships in regards to vendor and climbing the ladder to adviser but it’s just not happening very well. Then I figured I’d much rather hear what you have to say…
He got back to me pretty quickly…
CJ,
The phrase “holier than thou” comes to mind, but you know me. I don’t like to judge people without learning something about them. So I checked out Aaron’s LinkedIn profile. First of all, he’s very good looking and I suspect that he’s used to people believing him just because of that. Second, he’s from North Carolina and everybody knows that the definition of an expert is “any damn fool from out of town”. Third, and this is probably the most important, he graduated from UNC Chapel Hill for god’s sake! Not only that, but he graduated in 2000. Obviously, he’s much smarter than anybody that graduated from any other school in the country and for sure exponentially smarter than anyone that graduated in the 1900’s, or (god forbid) didn’t graduate from any college. Did I say that Aaron was from North Carolina? You know what they say…
I was thinking about throwing in some other examples, like this, or this, or this about my heritage, but I decided that it would be in poor taste. I hope that you realize that I’m pulling your leg here. As a sales expert, (not an insurance expert or an expert at anything else that needs to be bought) I see a lot that could be better in the way that salespeople interact with their prospects. The problem is that most of them don’t want to be better, more consultative, customer-centric salespeople. They think that what they have to offer is awesome and that all they have to do is spill their guts on a sales call and the prospect will see it too. When it doesn’t work, they use old fashioned tricks because they saw it in a movie or on TV and interestingly, sometimes people buy from them, but not always for the reason that the salesperson thinks they’re buying. So, should all politicians be lumped together? Should all immigrants be lumped together? Should all salespeople be lumped together?
Set the example. If they follow, great. If not, you’ll get what you deserve.
Rick
There it is in it’s entirety. From my understanding, Rick and Aaron have never met not talked. I have spoken with both of them. Aaron’s concept intrigues me and he will be the first to admit it’s not perfect. What it does is remove the salesguy to a certain extent but what you loose might be a whole lot more valuable. By removing the salesguy you loose the help that an expert can provide. You end up commoditizing the process because you’ve taken out the questions that Aaron says himself, are so important. In the end, Rick says it best set the example.
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Thanks for the write-up CJ, and I’m flattered that Dave thinks I’m such a good looking guy. As a point of clarification, I did not graduate from UNC. The dates on my LinkedIn profile are attendance dates. I wound up putting myself through college the rest of the way while working full-time. Hope that doesn’t shatter the image you had of me:)
I think we are on the same side of the big picture. We’re both fighting for an approach to convey value to the public that is focused on them and whatever their deep needs are. If you could imagine a conveyor belt that thought it was more important than the things it transported or the people who needed those things, that would be a broken machine.
In the second paragraph of my article, you’ll see that I basically say people’s perceptions are their reality (to get dorky: connotation is more important than denotation). Instead of trying to clash with that reality, I think a better way is to accept it and see where it goes. There certainly are experts who have a consultative approach with their clients and they happen to make money from sales. We need more people like that.
You embrace the title of salesperson and want to change it. That’s great. I just use the public’s existing idea of a salesperson to delineate those with bad sales practices from the folks we need in this world. It’s the words, not the concepts.
I was talking with an attorney today who said that she is a seller of information and what people do with that information is up to them. I thought it was genius. I do think that in a lot of ways we are talking about the same thing conceptually. However, I believe everyone is a salesperson in some way or another. The job seeker is trying to sell themselves to the person interviewing them. The personal trainer sells the possibility of being healthy. The difference is the approach that one takes. A car salesman does have to be as good of a salesperson since people come to him wanting a car. Where as the small business owner needs to find his/her own clients. To different ways to sell.
CJ, I’m gonna have to be careful about what I put in emails to you. Thank you. You made me look good. Three things:
First – Strive to be a perfect sales man. Not that you will sell perfectly, but that you will only make perfect sales. You only sell when there is a perfect match between what you deliver and what your customer needs AND wants.
Second – I’m not sure that I would use the word “mistakes” when talking about any approach. Think about how much business is done on the NYSE, AMEX or the NASDAQ. How different is that from the way business is conducted at open air markets in the Middle East? Salespeople not only need to offer what their prospect needs and wants, but they have to deliver the offer the way their prospect needs and wants it delivered.
Finally, the difference is in the details. Think about the Olympics. Medals are sometimes won by fractions of a second. What will I change next to bring me closer to be perfect? I don’t know, but I’m watching.
Perfect Salesman´s last blog ..Sales Tips for Hubspot Customers (and Hubspot Partners)
Rick you know that any and all info is fair game. As you usual you make some great points. Mistakes is probably the wrong word. What I was trying to say was that we have adapted to the way in which the consumers have changed. Door-to-door sales don’t work as well because wives aren’t necessarily home all day long and people have learned to either not answer the door or get rid of the salesperson. The best salespeople are able to change their approach or methodology to continue to help people, just maybe in a different way.
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