Everybody Sells

Sales isn’t for everyone … or so the conventional wisdom goes. Nonsense.

From my perspective everybody sells. It’s just that in our culture we’ve attached a weird Willie Loman/Herb Tarlick connotation to the persons whose job it is to bring money into companies. Aggressive and annoying, pathetic and sorrowful. Small, manipulative and, well, dirty, somehow. You know, plaid sport coats and slicked-back hair.

Of course, the manipulative ways salespeople are taught to behave actually create this problem.

The lessons begin with A.B.C. — Always Be Closing. And if you do it right, you’ll “uncover the objections” so you can “overcome” them with a countermove that leaves your prospect speechless. Then you can “close” your prospect (or should I say victim?), and hope he or she will stay closed and won’t have “buyers’ remorse” because then you’ll have to go back and “re-sell.”

If this sounds familiar, I have just one question: How’s that working out for you?

If you’re stuck in a sales “system” that makes you feel like you need a shower, stick around. I’ve been selling and managing sales folks for over 20 years and I’ve seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly. But I’ve got a better idea.

My idea is that no one wants to play in that sandbox any more. We’ve got to start by reframing what sales is so we can better understand where it can take us.

First of all, sales is a critically important part of business. It represents the transaction within a business relationship that happens when I can help you be successful/happy/fulfilled with my products or services.

Let’s deconstruct that sentence:

1. Sales is a transaction, i.e., money changes hands, which is how it is different from marketing. Marketing and sales are NOT the same.
2. There is a relationship, i.e., I trust you, you trust me. Anything I do that is not transparent, honest, or of the highest integrity violates our relationship.
3. I’m selling to you, i.e., this is personal. We’re both human beings with feelings and emotions that, in the end, will really determine the result of our sales conversation.

So how do we reach this state of business-relations bliss? Stay tuned for more on what I’m calling “Fully-Conscious Selling.”
Lee Porter has sold, managed sales teams and taught sales techniques for the past 20 years. She’s worked with sales organizations, trained sales professionals and coached sales managers to help their teams increase productivity, improve performance and operate with integrity. She currently serves as Sales Maven with Trebuchet Group, based in Fort Collins. You can contact her directly at lee@trebuchetgroup.com or www.trebuchetgroup.com.

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