Salesperson’s Bill of Rights a preamble to success

One of the biggest challenges for professional sales and business-development people is that they often find themselves in a subservient role to their prospective customer and clients. After all, the customer is always right, right? Unfortunately, this belief undermines a salesperson’s self-worth and even more damaging, their self-esteem.

Don’t get me wrong. Many salespeople are far from perfect. You know, because they’ve called on you. However, strong company and sales leaders know it’s in their best interest to lift their sales team up. A person and a team that feels good about themselves is far more likely to take risks, embrace rejection and rebound swiftly from failure.

At your next sales meeting, try out this “salesperson’s Bill of Rights” on your team and see what they think:

You have the right to your dreams, desires and expectations. The selling environment can be a pretty negative arena, from customers and prospects telling you “your stuff isn’t that good” to company leaders putting all of the emphasis on what the team is not accomplishing versus what it is accomplishing.

You have the right to what you want. Don’t feel guilty for wanting more. Use it as motivation to work hard and achieve your dreams. Sales is one of the only occupations where you can give yourself a raise any time you want. The payoff for that cause-and-effect compensation is that you can go out and get what you want.

You have the right to like yourself as you are. Our head trash is part of the human condition. We all have psychological trash. Even veteran salespeople sometimes forget that selling is like many other high-performance occupations where your mindset has a major impact on your ability to perform.

You have the right to change. Personal growth requires you to break out of your comfort zone, embracing discomfort when it lies in the path towards a greater goal. For some, change is seen as an admission of having ben on the wrong path. Quite the contrary, in selling there is no such thing as status quo; you are either shrinking or growing, so we must change.

You have the right to fail. No need for excuses for attempts and failures. You have the right to fail and embrace failure as a good thing. A wise person once said, “When I am failing, I am growing.”

You have the right to be imperfect. There will be times when your performance is less than brilliant. Don’t be so hard on yourself that it turns into a “doom loop” of self-reinforcing despair. Understand that we are perfect as living organisms, walking miracles. It is only in our roles that we are imperfect and we fail. Most importantly, those roles don’t define our intrinsic human value.

You have the right to choose. Choose what company you work for, what prospects you want to quote, when to disqualify a prospective customer, etc. Nowhere is it written that every prospect deserves to see your presentation, quote or demo. You have value, and they must qualify for your time and expertise.

You have the right to ask. Ask, never beg, and keep asking. Expect some rejection; it will help you grow. Smart salespeople understand the value of a “no” and “go for the no!”

You have the right to decide how you will use your time and energy. Never give anything without getting something of equal or better value in return.

You have the right to lunch — once you have paid the price. This is the opposite of “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” When you’ve done the right behaviors’ the ones you’ve committed to doing, consistently and correctly, reward yourself because you’ve done what most won’t do. You’ve gotten out of your comfort zone and done the hard stuff.

Salespeople have rights, but only salespeople with a healthy self-concept will be likely to exercise those rights. However, when they do, sales go up, frustrations and worry goes down and job satisfaction and income go up. So enjoy this great occupation of business development and selling. It’s your right!

Bob Bolak is president of Sandler Training. Contact him at 303-579-1939 or bbolak@sandler.com.

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