Doing Sales is an art (and misinterpreted often)

It's true, most of the professionals out there aren't able to 'do sales', mainly because they don't have to. (Although 'selling yourself' on a daily basis implies that we all need to) I want to talk about the group of 'sales guys and girls' that just don't understand what sales is all about!

Let me start by stating that I think 'doing sales' is a real and difficult profession and a fine art. Something you have to study and practice practice and practice in order to get it right.

Background

At the age of nine I was told I would become a great sales man just because of the fact that I could talk for hours. Someone told me at a later age that I would be able to sell my grandma just because he heard me talk passionately about one of my favorite subjects, music. As I know now it is just not true. 

I've been working in sales for many years, not only doing high level B2B sales but teaching it. Training people in the art of 'Selling'. As we all know it's got nothing to do with being a great conversationalist, it's all related to being a great listener. Knowing where the pain is, knowing where you, your staff or your products might actually work as a painkiller for your customer. 

This is why my pants drop every single time I meet one of the 'I'm a real sales man' who just don't get the concept of 'doing sales'. How are they able to make a living? What does their boss tell them if they come back with another 'sorry boss, no sales generated so far'

LinkedIN

Just recently I got a connection request from someone who, at first glance, could have become important to me and my organization. He was connected in the second line through several of my personal connections. Apparently they all saw the use of connecting to him so why not. I must tell you that in all these years I've only connected to people I have met in person. This was the first exception. And the last...

Immediately after accepting the connection the man sent me an email. The gentleman in question worked for a large accountancy organization (of which I will respectfully withhold the name) In the mail he wrote that he'd done a lot of background investigation on our organization and 'found out' that "since you are an IT company" there must be a desperate need for training. (WTH??) Furthermore he thought it would be 'good' to have a brief chat about what his company could do for us.

Although you can expect something like this from a tiny startup with lots of tech skills and no sales skills whatsoever (which I would always give a platform to talk), I didn't expect it to come from such an established company as his.

The 'investigation' he talked about by the way hadn't gone so far as to being able to spell our company name right. We didn't have a 'desperate need' for training and a 'no strings attached' meeting would have been a complete waste of time.

Try, fail, adjust and try again

In a large and established company your representatives are exactly what they are supposed to be; your business card to the outside world, your customers. I think it would be good to know who does this outside communication and what quality you expect from them. A message like this one makes me wonder if there is anyone within that company that monitors or measures the effect of their staffs work.

Train people. Help them become a real representative for you company. Get them to gain experience and help them out in communicating to the outside world. If you don't have the expertise in-house, get it! Show them how it's done. Give them the opportunity to 'Try, fail, adjust and try again' but don't let them practice on your customers.

This example is just one of the many I get almost every day. Whether it's over email or on the phone. There has been a time when I gave them all my personal and professional opinion on the way they tried to get me to 'meet' (in a very polite and friendly way I might add).  I stopped quite a while ago. 

In the end, you don't want your staff practicing on the customer you expect to pay your bills, right?