"Sales" is Not a Dirty Word

Working at a university with over 33,000 students, I hear some interesting conversations. In my primary role, I serve as a Career Counselor for students in scientific disciplines such as chemistry, biological sciences, physics, meteorology, and more. Through my interactions with these students, I am able to thin slice some common attitudes toward certain professions, and rarely do I hear anything positive surrounding the idea of working in sales.

Now I get it, these students have their brains focused on answering some of our biggest and most complex questions. Many of them are preparing for medical school or have their hopes set on earning their Ph.D. to conduct research in their own lab—they did not come to college with the goal of being a sales professional. But, even though most of them will not find themselves in a traditional sales role, they will be selling ideas, grants, projects, and more. The set of skills required to be an effective and ethical sales professional are critical for most careers, and life in general. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are all in sales to varying degrees.

As the demand for talent in STEM continues to increase, so does the need for effective STEM communicators. Years ago, I convinced a close friend to start a blog. He was working toward his Ph.D. in biochemistry, and one of his many amazing talents was this ability to explain complex scientific concepts in language that just about anyone could grasp—plus he is just super down to Earth. This friend (who is still one of my aces to this day) was Dr. Michael Johnson. Check out Dr. Johnson’s blog post where he takes a quick inventory of the wide variety of skills executed to operate his immunology lab at the University of Arizona. What set of skills did he leverage to land that $1.9M NIH grant?

Understanding a sales process and how to effectively communicate an idea, like Dr. Johnson, is not only essential but it exists as the most commonly used set of communication skills we have. What is a job search other than a sales process? What about writing a grant, proposing a new project, or publicly debunking widely-held scientific myths? What about winning an election?

Through my own experience in working with thousands of STEM students and observing their technical and interpersonal skills first-hand, it’s clear that communication skills are not always emphasized throughout their course of study. I am not declaring that these students are anything short of amazing, because they blow my mind in a multitude of ways just about every day. What I am saying is that we need to be intentional about helping our STEM students develop well-honed communication skills—skills that will allow them to become effective in selling the scientific concepts and realities the public needs to hear and understand. 

Before I went to grad school and embarked on the career path I am currently on, I was in business-to-business sales. Yes, I left my sales career for a new venture, but I am forever grateful for the foundation in problem solving and effective communication I developed while in those roles (my real issue with sales as a profession was cultural and focused on prospecting, but I will save that for a different post??). When I first began reading about counseling theories—specifically goal setting, building rapport, identifying client concerns, and establishing therapeutic alliances—I realized I was simply gaining a deeper insight into what I had already been doing for 10-years as a sales professional. I realized that sales skills consist of a set of sociological and psychological processes that authors such as Neil Rackham and Daniel Pink have written about at length.

Rackham wrote one of the most influential books on the sales process, period. His 1988 book titled S.P.I.N. Selling is a brilliantly-crafted manual on what makes an effective sales process based on 12-years of qualitative and quantitative research from 35,000 sales calls—that’s science, specifically a teachable science. More recently, Daniel Pink wrote a great read on sales titled To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, which thoroughly documents how within our modern entrepreneurial society we all need to fully acknowledge and cultivate our inner sales professional. In Pink’s book, he also addresses the stigma around sales, provides helpful examples for readers on how to practice conversational pitches for more effective networking, and how to position yourself to become more customer service oriented. 

Like Mike Rowe advocating for “dirty jobs,” I am advocating for the stigma toward sales to cease. It is perfectly understandable to not desire a career in sales, but do not turn your nose in the air when sales, or sales skills, are mentioned. Instead, ask yourself, “How effective are my sales skills, and how can I improve in this area? How can having effective sales skills impact my work?”

And for those of us working on college campuses, I think it’s time we start recognizing the need to help our students develop these skills through interdisciplinary projects, programs, and curriculum. And dare I recommend we start with ourselves?

Wes is a Career Counselor at NC State University in the Career Development Center where he serves students in the College of Sciences. The views expressed in this article are solely his own, and this piece is not affiliated with NC State University.

He is also a licensed and certified clinical counselor currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development with a concentration in Counseling & Counselor Education. You can reach Wes via email at [email protected] or via Twitter @wes_wade.