I am not a Salesman!

One of the most common objections, which I’m confronted with when working with clients is, “ I am not a salesman and I don’t do sales.”

Every time I hear this, a little piece of my “joie de vivre” dies inside.

“Don’t you ever speak or meet with customers? Don’t you ever discuss work with friends or associates? Don’t you ever send an email?”

Here’s the rub … like it or not we all “do sales”. Whether you are an engineer, a tax expert, a customer services representative, a director or a P.A. – you sell! If you perform a service, which directly or indirectly brings value to a customer through the products your company provides, the skills you offer or the job you do – you are selling!

“So how does that work?”

Customers are continuously evaluating your performance, value and future relevance in the context of the issues, which you assist them to address or the opportunities, which you help them to realise. In short, they are judging you and your company through the way you engage, the things you say and do (or don’t) and how you treat them.

Throughout my career I have struggled with the intellectual snobbery and derogatory inferences around the word “sales”. Individuals who really should know better often view salespeople as a sub-class. Their logic is fundamentally flawed and frequently stems from an insecurity around their own inability to “sell”. That is rectifiable – give me a call!

Without sales and the cultivation of a sales mentality, businesses simply wither and ultimately die on the corporate vine. One of the most successful and erudite CEOs I ever met was disarmingly straightforward at his first board meeting, having joined a company in desperate need of turnaround.

Explaining why sales mattered, he told his new board colleagues this, “Forget going fast or slow – if you and your teams don’t fuel this ship, we’re going nowhere except down.” He immediately pinpointed the reluctance of colleagues, outwith the Business Development team, who didn’t see themselves as “doing sales”, as a major contributory factor in the underperformance of the business.

So, if you are one of those people or indeed know of someone who recoils at the use of the “S” word, let me leave you with the words of Jack Canfield…

“Don’t Worry About Failures, Worry About The Chances You Miss When You Don’t Even Try.”