Who wants to be a Salesperon when they Grow Up?
Last week, I was asked to give a talk about selling as a career to a group of students who are presently contemplating their futures. The career guidance teacher who invited me is out of the box thinker and educator. He thought it would be interesting for his students to hear about a profession not normally considered at this stage.
I must say, I found the experience to be hugely enjoyable, while at the same time a little frustrating. I don’t usually get to interact with younger people about sales. To hear their opinions was somewhat of an eye opener for me.
While I was only there for just over an hour, I struggle to recall an hour where so much learning took place. This learning was by no means confined to the students; in fact I would suggest that I probably gained as much if not more than they did.
Here is a taster of some of their initial comments about professional sales:
Selling is very difficult.
You need to be a really good talker to succeed in sales.
Salespeople tell you what you want to hear so that you buy.
Salespeople are not always trustworthy.
Salespeople sometimes tell lies to get you to buy.
Salespeople get commission on everything they sell.
Their overall impression of professional selling is not a good one, nothing surprising about that you might say. In an attempt to recover some good PR, I begin to question how and where these negative impressions had come from .
I first asked about their experiences with salespeople. There were very few bad experiences and the ones that were, tended to be second-hand experience (a case of knowing someone who?) When we compared the number of actual bad experiences with any other well known professions, salespeople actually faired quite well.
A second type of second-hand experience that surfaced and was actually more prevalent; which was hearing about working in sales from someone, this was often a relation that had been in sales for a while and now had only bad things to say.
The media seemed to exert another powerful negative influence, with the students saying that selling is always portrayed in a bad light. Investigative news programmes been mentioned as showing up bad selling practices such as misinforming and misleading customers.
My next set of questions focused on any career salespeople they knew. Most students did know someone; What was surprising here is that these people were much less vocal than the ex-sellers, and even when they were, it had tended to be to warn the young person against professional selling.
We then talked about the educational institutes and specifically what information they provided to students, who might like to consider a career in sales. Having not sought out this information, the students felt they were not in a position to say. I later discussed this with their teacher, to my dismay; his answer “non-existent” in Ireland at least.
Having listened to my talk, the students thanked me, most adding that this was in fact the very first time anyone had talked to them about sales in a positive way.
I of course know that the majority of these students will never consider sales as a career. The law of averages however, means that that’s where at least some will eventually end up. Perhaps now, they might at least enter sales in a more hopeful and realistic way.
As I mentioned, this event surprised me, because I arrived not expecting to learn so much from these young people. What I was given was a wonderful opportunity to look at sales through their eyes.
I leant that their presumptions about salespeople had never been questioned, even by the career salespeople they came in contact with. More importantly perhaps, I learnt that these same presumptions could be challenged and changed; it just required someone like me to take the initiative.
If we are to improve the overall standard of selling and salespeople, surely it makes most sense to start at the start.
This could mean business and sales people actively going out to directly and indirectly promote the rewarding and proud profession of sales to our young people.
How many young talented people might consider a career in sales? If we were just the littlest bit more vocal and perhaps stood up for ourselves on occasion.
Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training
Tags: a career in sales, becoming a sales professional, how young people feel about selling, sales career
February 9th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Niall: Nice post, it got me to thinking. In reflecting on my own decision to go into sales (I was a mathy-science type), I had a lot of misconceptions and lack of knowledge. Going over to the “dark side” was almost an accident, I was in NYC interviewing for jobs in the financial services community (talk about how reputations can change) and a VP of Sales for a large technology organization wanted me to spend some time with him. As things progresse, I found the challenge and the people most interesting and ended up a “sales person.”
First, I think people will always find reason to despise or joke sales people, just as we do with other careers (bankers, lawyers, consultants, engineers, computer geeks, and the list goes on). We have to accept that as a given.
Having said that, I think we can do much more to upgrade the way we conduct ourselves as professionals. I think the personal examples we set are the most vivid way of starting to change people’s opinions. Nothing please me more than to have someone say “you aren’t a typical sales person.” It’s a bit of a backhanded compliment, but enables me to start talking about “what is a typical sales person,” and begin to change perceptions.
Additionally, you know I am a strong advocate of “creating value in every interchange.” The more of us that do this, it will both raise the bar on performance and start resetting expectations and opinions of customers.
Whenever we get a chance, as you did, to speak to audiences about selling, I think the approach of challenging misconceptions is great.
I do worry a little about how some might take your comment about being more vocal and standing up for ourselves. Done correctly, it can be powerful, done incorrectly, it can sound self promotional and just further reinforce people’s bad opinions of sales people.
Nice post!
February 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Hi Dave,
And the force is still strong with you lol.
You are right of course, the very best way to change perceptions is to set example, and the best example to set for our customers is to create and bring value to every interchange. This results in strong honest mutually beneficial relationships filled with trust and respect.
I also accept that my last comment could be misunderstood, perhaps I should have expanded. What I mean is that there are many young people today who will end up forging a future career in sales. There are also many who will enter sales and may not survive. There are companies who use up young sales people, and destroy their confidence and prospects. It is my opinion, people entering sales need to have an better appreciation of selling so that they can make more informed decisions at the start of the sales careers.I feel that there is almost a duty on the rest of us to tell it like it is. This of course means positives and negatives. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff that is out there comes from people who appear to me at least to know little.
Thanks so much for your experience and insight.
Warmest Regards,
Niall