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…