‘Sales’ — a need for repositioning & rebranding?
In trying to codify the sales techniques I have learned over the years (for a short ebook), I keep hitting the same wall. Namely, that ‘sales’ and ‘selling’ are considered by most to be pejorative words and a vocation not desired by the most.
Popular culture does it no favours, often designating it as the frontman for ‘big-bad-capitalism’. Intellectuals have disdain for the job because of the anachronistic view that salespeople merely slap backs, play golf and have boozy lunches, something more akin to ‘jocks’ and not requiring intellectual effort. Finance people get irked, because like the marketing budget, they often can’t see the direct return on money invested. Product people usually don’t like salespeople because they sell solutions that are not ‘on-spec’ and therefore require extra effort (and risk). Marketers don’t like salespeople, mostly seeing them as rogue and ‘off-brand’.
While my titles have denoted other things, if I am honest, my job has been sales for last ~1o years, and until recently, I too, on occasion, have tried to hide the fact that what I do is really selling. So I get it.
The word ‘sales’ is most certainly at edges of cultural affinity. Frankly, the bar to get a sales job can be quite low at the bottom. (For the record, however, the very best salespeople are like programmers — there is an order of magnitude difference in delivery between a really good one and a great one.)
The issue could be that the word ‘sales’, like ‘money’, incorrectly focuses on an outcome. We obtain money as a result of what we do (which as a corollary, is why it is a bad goal). Similarly, ‘sales’ is an outcome of actions that deliver value to the end customer or client and does a poor job of articulating its full value. For example, what wins business are activities that focus on client edification. Specifically, how the product or service can help enhance their business goals or alleviate pain & cost. Even before this, a salesperson is also required to diagnose the real issues. This often requires deep thought, because what clients think are the causes are, in fact, symptoms. And finally, there is the complexity of a plethora of bias and fears influencing the client’s decision making, which a good salesperson needs to assess, and will allay through careful articulation of the solution that suits.
So in my view, selling is a confluence of teaching, scientific-method, and psychology. It is a profession that has an increasingly important role in how the world is shaped. And then, of course, one could argue everyone sells — every time you communicate with someone, you sell. So can we work on the rebranding and positioning of the word Sales? Suggestions welcome.
