Don't Be An Assh@le to Salespeople

Anyone who’s ever worked as a server in a restaurant knows how hard it is to work for tips. Sometimes, customers can be very rude. They forget that we choose to work at these establishments as an employee to offer them a great experience. Being a customer does not give you the right to be disrespectful and mean to servers. 

If you’ve worked as a server, you completely understand how hard it is to serve a rude customer. Because of these experiences, I now go out of my way to be extra nice to restaurant servers who wait on me. I always tip more than is necessary. Most servers are working an extra job to make ends meet, or to put themselves through school. There is no need to be rude, even when they make mistakes.

The same goes for salespeople. If you’ve worked in sales (or currently do), you know it’s a grind. You get hundreds of rejections in order to land that single sale. Every once in a while there’s a person on the receiving end of your sales pitch who wants to prove they are smarter than you, or treat you like shit just because you’re in sales. No one, in any occupation, deserves to be yelled at. Salespeople are simply trying to do their jobs.

I’ve built my companies with the knowledge that effective leaders can communicate without the need to make the other person feel like shit. Derogatory remarks and rude behavior is completely unnecessary and only makes you look like an idiot. In my experience, I’ve found insecure people to be the most aggressive. They feel the need to prove that they are smarter than us or that they are superior since we work in sales and they do not. Confident people can communicate without being abrasive and often have a more effective result. True leaders aren’t assholes.

As a technology CEO, I probably receive 10 sales emails/calls per day. Since I worked in sales myself, I ALWAYS take time to respond to every single salesperson. Sometimes it’s as simple as, “thanks for reaching out, but I don’t have a need at this time”. Every salesperson who contacts me receives a response. Keep in mind, salespeople are human beings with feelings, families to feed, and life goals that they want to achieve. You should treat them with respect. Consider each salesperson that you interact with as if they are a potential customer or eventually someone who could be your boss. Imagine if you crossed paths with that person again in the future. Would you want to be remembered as being an asshole? I didn’t think so.

Consider this story:

As many founders do in an early startup, I was running all of our sales. I once had an opportunity to pitch my software platform to a big hotel resort chain. Everything seemed to be going well at the Vice President of Marketing level until they brought in their web person. The person sitting in the meeting was terribly rude. So rude in fact, the Vice President of Marketing was embarrassed for me. It was obvious that this person needed to put themselves in a position where they could feel superior over me. Needless to say, I didn’t win that customer. 

Fast forward a few years later, my software company is now thriving with over 600 companies on our platform, such as Best Buy, Four Seasons Hotels, 2KGames, and Yeti, to name a few. I was completely surprised to receive a call from that same person, now looking for a job, reaching out to me to see if we were hiring. Did that person completely forget our interaction? I was shocked. Even still, I responded politely with, “It’s good to hear from you. Thanks for your interest in our company. We don’t have anything available today, but I’ll keep an eye out for you.”. I knew damn well I’d never hire someone like that for our company.

Over the years in building companies and working with large organizations, I’ve found that a sales position is often the starting point for many sharp people looking to get into an up-and-coming company. Sales is one of the most important jobs in a company, and should be respected. Many people are too afraid to go into sales, and often the people who excel at sales end up taking leadership positions, like CEO. Be careful how you communicate with salespeople - they might be your boss one day. 

So when you’re being solicited by a salesperson, please be kind. We can handle you simply saying “no”. Being rude isn’t required. 

About Jason Weaver

Jason Weaver is a prominent author and a thought leader in product innovation, digital marketing and entrepreneurship. Jason founded and successfully exited from two technology companies including Shoutlet, a leading Social Media Management platform, and Spendsetter, a Mobile Loyalty Platform.

 He has authored articles for world renowned publications, such as Forbes, Mashable, and Bloomberg. His book, Manager’s Guide to Online Marketing (McGraw-Hill) is internationally published and has become a go-to guide for digital marketing for companies around the world.

 Jason has raised over $50M in venture funding for his companies. He is also an active angel investor and advisor for several emerging technology companies, such as, Emma, LiveSchool, Venture 360, and Directly. He works as an advisor to both venture capital firms and network angel funding groups nationally. He’s a sought-after keynote speaker and an industry leading expert on both social media and mobile marketing.

 Jason has been a technology advisor to some of the world’s most recognizable companies, to include, eBay, Miller Brewing, American Family Insurance, Best Buy, IKEA, Nissan, and AT&T. 

Today, Jason is the Founder and CEO of AirDeck, a platform that allows you to create, distribute, and track narrated presentations. AirDeck users are recording on-demand webinars, personalizing sales presentations, creating employee on-boarding guides, sending investor pitch decks, and building customer training programs. AirDeck is way easier to use than creating videos and has better tracking capabilities. Signup for a free trial at AirDeck.co.