Selling to the Alpha

I’ve been a sales recruiter for 19 years. During that time, I’ve interviewed thousands of salespeople, met thousands of salespeople and spent all day speaking to salespeople. 

Salespeople are alphas.

Alpha males, alpha females and non-gender-specific alpha people. How can they all be alphas? Surely, some must be and some must not? No, you’re all alphas. 

The IT sales cohort must be the weirdest cohort of people in the world. You’re all alphas but you all congregate. It sort of shouldn’t work but it does. Some people are more assertive about their position in the hierarchy, but everyone in the hierarchy embodies dominance. 

Don’t believe me? Think about your home life. Man or woman, I’d bet my last pound that you’re the alpha in your relationship. What about when you have two salespeople married to each other? Well, you have two salespeople, both constantly vying for position in the pack.

What does this mean to you? 

I think that we should understand our buyer’s perception of themselves and if we want to influence them, that’s what we need to sell to. We don’t sell to people per se, but their perception of themselves. 

So if your boss is an alpha (which, in case you haven’t noticed, they will be), how do you cement their status? 

Clearly selling stuff works well, but how else can you help their alpha appetite?