If You Hate Sales, You're Doing Something Wrong

"I hate selling." Those were the first words on Dave Pollard's "How to Save the World" blog the other day.  I really like Dave's musings, but this post really bugged me. I felt compelled to respond so I sent him this email:

Dave - Based on your perception of selling, you may be surprised to learn that a salesperson like me reads your blog.  So because you're on a quest right now, I'd like to share a few thoughts with you that perhaps may alter your somewhat limited thinking of the profession I've been in for the past 25 years.

What you really hate is "poor selling" like the slick used car salesman who'll say anything to get you to buy from him or the telemarketer who invades your privacy at home with her poorly rehearsed script.  The reason you hate it is because it's forced on you, it's manipulative, smarmy and self-serving. But you need to realize that those people are not successful in sales.

Top B2B (business-to-business) sellers are truly focused on making a difference. They view their products or services as simply a tool that their customers can use to achieve specific business objectives. Prior to making any sales calls, they do extensive research on their prospect to ensure they know what's happening in their firm, market conditions, competitive activity, industry trends and more. They're searching for a couple things: 1) problems or issues that can be resolved by their products/services or 2) gaps between a customer's stated goal and their current status. Their entire focus is on business process improvement.

Then, they need to get a meeting set up with corporate decision makers. If they use any of the sleaze ball tactics you despise, they'd never get their foot in the door. Instead, they approach the decision maker as a peer with ideas on how they can make a difference in their customer's operation. (FYI: It often takes 8-10 calls to set up a meeting.)

To ensure the meeting is worthwhile for their prospect, they spend hours in preparation. They can't come in and do a pitch. If they start talking about their wonderful offering, unique capabilities, state-of-the-art processes or robust system – it's over. They're out.

Instead they have to focus on engaging the decision makers in a business-oriented conversation relevant to their offering. At the end of the meeting, they suggest the logical next step … which may be another meeting, a demonstration, analysis – or whatever.

You said that sometimes you just have to "pitch." I fundamentally disagree with you. You never pitch. NEVER. Or you'll blow it. Instead you have to engage people in a dialogue, explore the situation in more depth, uncover un-thought of business implications and ramifications for continuing with the status quo and then determine the pay-off from making a change.

Now I'd like to go back to my first statement in this post. I read your blog because I (and all other B2B sellers) work in a world of complexity.  It's an incredibly challenging job. If you ask me to describe what I'd look for in a sales rep today, I'd say:

- Ability to analyze a vast array of disparate information quickly and make sense of it. This includes but is not limited to knowledge about: products/services, the marketplace, business analytics, trends, competitive movement, organizational politics and more.

- Ability to synthesize this information in order to develop ideas that would be of interest to corporate decision makers and then come up with strategies to implement these ideas.

- Ability to step back from their strategies/ideas to do a SWOT analyses and evaluate their effectiveness from the shoes of the various corporate constituencies so they can make necessary changes prior to implementation.

- And … they still need to have strong skills in these areas: questioning, presentations, written and verbal communications, researching, etc.

Hopefully by now you're beginning to see that your perception of "selling" was rather limited. I'd be glad to send you a copy of my book, Selling to Big Companies so you can learn more. In less than 10 months it's become a bestseller. Not only are salespeople reading it, but many consultants and independent professionals are picking it up too.

They're discovering that their incorrect perception of sales hurts their ability to help their clients and make the difference that they want to make. If you're interested, let me know. And perhaps you might even want to check out my website to read more about sales. I think you'll be surprised. Here's the url:  http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com

Regards,  Jill

... I'm waiting for his response ...

Comments

[Bob Van Leeuwen]

WOW Jill , you did it again!
From an unsolicited response, you really 'hit the nail on the head' of our profession! With a one page reply, you have written a complete summation of this complex and challenging routine we call "sales". No, it is NOT an easy task, but the rewards are very satisfying. Especially when I help solve a client's business issue and he does NOT feel like he was being sold! We found the solution together.

That my friend, is the love of sales.

[STH]

Jill-
Frustration might better describe the word "hate." Let me explain what I mean

Sales professionals are under appreciated, used and more times than not abused. There are many factors that evolve during a sale. Some are controllable and some are not. When a business that lacks the marketing, business development techniques and budgets hire an end-all/ be-all sales person assuming that growth should just happen, disaster is always eminent. Just bring in the business is a typical attitude.

Unrealistic expectations!

Especially on a limited budget with the lack of support. That is a great debate and quite accurately the biggest problem with companies and sales managers today. It's easy to find faults and areas to pinpoint reasons why sales don't increase.

Every director, sales manager, sales person, business development, VP of marketing and CEO's all base their careers and management upon books, secondary education, professional training and previous personal/ work experiences.

All that we know to teach and manage by is all that we have ever succeeded at. My quote:)

Start-ups across this country all find a successful model and emulate it hoping that what was good for the goose is going to be good for the gander.

I think "hate" was used because of the lack of creativity found in these organizations, companies and institutions. We rely too much on old-world approaches to sales with advancements only being achieved in sciences and technology.

Why is it that our technologies can surpass our creativity to implement newer ideas and was of generating business. Consumers, companies and C-level executives are bombarded with cold-calls on a daily basis because some sales manager somewhere is telling how he succeeded at it and that it works!

As the generations become older and younger professionals move into the marketplace, we must address and consider alternative methods of prospecting, selling and communicating.

I agree with what your responded with: caring about the customer is HUGE and using a consultative approach during the sale thus becoming a valued resource partner demands stronger positive results. All good stuff.

However, sales and maketing seems to be the most expendable areas with very little support and change taking place or consideration of improving the success of sales people. Professional development....

Sales training?

There's a thought.

A consultant starts an educational and motivational company targeting sales departments talking about increasing activity, productivity and sales training.

Sure, some and maybe most of us can learn some things from that, but is it really the key to professional development and companies solidifying their committment to that sales person over their career.

See we have moved away from companies caring about the employees and instead placed all caring and emphasis on the customer. That is important, but without good employees to compliment the customers...you won't have many customers.

I can see how "hate" would be easy to use understanding how sales people are treated, viewed and dis-respected. How many calls do you actually return from a prospective sales person? Really?

Sales people are highly needed today along with more out of the box thinking that turns some heads. Sales careers need more longevity and less turn-over with an increase in appreciation for what sales people do.

Sales people love to sell, but over time companies who lack creative leadership tend to discard what was once the fiber of old salesmanship - integrity -

Optional: If you hate sales, you might need to change organizations.

[Carolynn Duncan]

Jill,

It's interesting that there is such a negative connotation with sales, even though they are the lifeblood of a business.

I do like your idea that you should never "pitch". That's refreshing. And it is intuitive-- whenever a prospect hears the salesperson going into "pitch mode", and they're not prepared to close a deal at that time, it's a lost opportunity.

Companies need to face sales head-on instead of being afraid of them, ignoring them, or doing a bad job. Sales are only unpleasant when you don't understand the fundamental ways they work. Then it becomes fun. :)

[JVV]

Here it is folks. I am at cross-roads on this topic. Here I am on stress leave. After 16 years of sales and 6 b2b, I have seen office politics and corruption with in my branch of a multimillion dollar distribution company flourish. I have seen poor to pathetic management styles; from the dictator to the hand wipers. Watch out for the turnover rate is valuable advice if it grows, and new blood struggles to grasp the systems and industry, expect your back pack to be filled with responsibility. Now you must train, gain (market share reflected in your increased sales plan) and not complain. Sucky managers get lost in the math of turnover and instead take the easy way - let's pull the numbers out of the air. Let’s take their backlog and move it to our specialist team - who cares how hard they work on the orders. Let’s give the new people easy targets so they stay longer. Obviously the veterans are here for the long haul otherwise they would have stayed so long. He has kids and a mortgage, so he won't leave. Let's promote the single people who came from the same previous employer that several of the managers came from. We'll they should be promoted, after all they know who of these new managers had an adulterous affair. They have the mangers by the throat. Who cares if their sales performance is nothing near warranting such a move up the corporate ladder?
Well, this is my experience. Now I am not ignorant or narrow minded. I am sure there are companies in my area that have high levels of integrity and fairness. There are the ones I am in the process of finding. Wish me luck

[David]

Hi Jill

I am very interested in some of your comments.
I myself have been on the sales treadmill for over 20 years and I must admit, that whilst I have always had a strong personal ethos
to selling the correct product and application to meet the clients needs, I am sad to say a lot of my peers have not.
Sales people get a lot of flack from both marketing personnel and technical support (usually jealousy that sales people are earning the big bucks when these colleagues dont understanding the value we
bring to the Company) I have also found that line managers cannot understand the enjoyment of wanting to stay in sales and
not wanting to take that promotion of sales manager/director
as good sales people like to sell not manage.
My biggest career problems, have always been that new sales directors, have joined my successful established companies and have felt personally aggrieved, that the sales team have not jumped up and down with glee, at the prospect of change or new
regimes, that they have decided to implement ,whilst they have not taken enough time and energy, to research whether these ideas are actually beneficial or even deliverable.

I can truly say that its not the sales career that has been the problem, but the weak management who try to shackle the poor
salesman with an overburden of directives, that actually stop the
poor chap from then getting on with the job of delivering sthe solutions and profits needed to keep all parties happy.

Regards

David

[Jill Konrath]

You absolutely have a point here about sales managers making things worse. Many of them issue unrealistic dictates that actually contribute to making things worse for sellers. And, as you said, the new managers who are trying to make their mark but who lack knowledge re: how to be a leader can muck things up even more than most.

[1]

Swimming with sharks feels a safer job oportunity !