Comments on: Who wants to be a Salesperon when they Grow Up? http://www.btbtraining.com/2009/02/09/who-wants-to-be-a-salesperon-when-they-grow-up/ Business development and strategy , sales and marketing, social media Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:53:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Niall Devitt http://www.btbtraining.com/2009/02/09/who-wants-to-be-a-salesperon-when-they-grow-up/#comment-1141 Niall Devitt Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:04:55 +0000 http://www.btbtraining.com/?p=290#comment-1141 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 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

]]> By: Dave Brock http://www.btbtraining.com/2009/02/09/who-wants-to-be-a-salesperon-when-they-grow-up/#comment-1137 Dave Brock Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:18:13 +0000 http://www.btbtraining.com/?p=290#comment-1137 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! 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!

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