The ART of SALES

Narcissistic. Annoying. Greedy. Liars. These are the common words used by the general public when describing some of their experiences with “salespeople”. To be honest, they aren’t completely wrong. As someone who’s been in the profession for the past 8 years, I get it. Not only have I been around colleagues who’ve exhibited these traits but at times have been painfully worried that I too have given this impression. But you know the cliche of “There’s a lot of police officers who are good but there are a few bad apples”? The same can be applied to the Sales profession. However, for every bad one there exists a cornucopia of people who understands their product, does their best to align PMF (product market fit) with their client’s outcomes, and fiercely advocates to make the process better. And it’s more than just earning a commission check.

Sales teaches effective communication, an understanding of human psychology, and provides a sense of entrepreneurship while staying under the safe umbrella of representing a large corporate company.?

Communication

The very basic structure of a good Sales org leans on creating a guideline of asking thoughtful questions, understanding a client’s current situation, and then seeing if their product/service can be utilized to maximize the best possible outcome. A select few then use their natural “gift of gab” to connect with their prospects to create conversation and attention around what they want to do and how to get there. Communication is paramount when finding how a piece of software can help 10x their revenue based on that company’s ICP (ideal customer profile), a piece of equipment that can help a construction project cut their completion time in half, or even find that brand new SUV that will help you camp on the weekends while still having that 3rd row handy to take the kids to soccer practice. Without effective communication you could sign up for the wrong software that can lie dormant while spending an arm and a leg because your team doesn’t think it’s effective or purchase a convertible that can’t go off-pavement but hey, it looks cool.?

Psychology

An important part of sales is knowing how to interact with the prospect. You wouldn’t talk the same way to your grandmother as you would a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, would you? It starts with aligning everything from the color of your website to listing the pros of using a product/service. From there you build an ICP (ideal customer profile) based on their timeline, how urgent it is to move them forward to the next steps and if they don't; the consequences of their own inaction, and how to package it to make it digestible by outsiders. A mental game of chess. Surrounded by an obsession about the CUSTOMER.?

Entrepreneurship

In Sales you can make a lot of money. This isn’t exactly a secret so much as a display of having a sense of individual entrepreneurship. This comes in the form of having individual quotas, working independently on your own pipeline, and taking the initiative to sometimes make risky decisions to help propel the revenue train. It’s arguably the same as running a small business. That’s why salespeople are often in a haze of tunnel vision unrelated to the larger picture because they don’t take credit for what their teammates do. But they end up creating growth that can be correlated to product advancements, scaling up a larger team, and getting year-end bonuses to an operations team that works tirelessly to have something to sell. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.?

While this article strives to shed light on a misunderstood profession, I hope a single person can come away with “Sales isn’t so bad” and understand the value they bring to a company. Yes they can come in the form of the mentioned above, but they are a necessary evil. There’s an art to it and a fine line to walk if someone wants to make it a lifelong career. They are the spark that starts the fire. Because “Until you contact the customer, you haven’t done anything”.

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