Things I miss about Sales (...and some I don't)

I'll give credit where credit is due on this article. I was reading 'The Sales Blog' the other day and saw the article 'What I miss about selling' by Anthony Iannarino. It got me thinking about the things that have changed in sales since I started around 1985. My experiences are similar to Anthony's but they aren't exactly the same - so if you've read his article this one will have a lot of similar elements, but my views will be different on some points and I'm going to expand it to cover a few of the things I don't miss!

My first sales job was on a summer break during college. I responded to an ad that was actually placed for warehouse help or something similar. The company was one that I'd never heard of called WWI or Wholesale Warehousing Industries. It became clear during my interview for the 'Warehouse' job that this company was a MLM (Multi Level Marketing) or "Pyramid" structure. The 'Warehouse' job was actually the 'Opportunity' to buy junk merchandise from a local owner and sell it door to door - earning your profits in cash every day. Although the early 80's recessions were now through, it was still really tough finding a summer job in 1985 and I decided to try this 'job' for a few days just to see how it would work out. It turned out really well for me! - I was quickly earning $100 - $200 a day in Cash (In 1985 at 18, initially living back in my parents' house with no expenses). I learned a lot about human nature and selling on energy, enthusiasm, and confidence. Partway through that summer my branch office 'Owner' decided she wanted to move her business to another city - I decided that there was no other way I was going to earn $25 an hour that summer, and followed her to her new location. It was quite an experience and I ended up taking an extra semester off school to continue to earn some cash for my coming return to school. This is a really long lead-up to get to the first thing that I miss about sales: and that's the instant gratification of a Closed Deal. Whether that be through the Contract Signing that Anthony mentions or just accepting the cash in person for a knife set --- Most B2B deals happen after you leave and are consummated electronically - I miss the ritual of the close - it's just not the same as it was!

In Anthony's article, he mentions the 'Sales Floor' and in my first job out of college we had a similar structure - we had a group of 'Hotel Desks' for the field sales team. There were no assigned desks and there were fewer desks than field salespeople - They were the oldest, crappiest desks with the oldest crappiest phones and not much else: Because your Field team should be in the field - not in the office. I still remember when I got into the office to use one of these desks: I was the guy that wanted everybody in the building to hear me working a deal - first to let them know I was in the building and second to make sure that management knew I was still working, not just visiting the office team. There was an energy to that environment, that I haven't seen in a long time - I'm still that guy when I'm in an office, I'm loud and visible - but as often as not in this era - I get 'shushed' by someone - Oddly, that never happened 'back in the day' - people expected it (and some learned from it) - I miss being able to demonstrate my craft out loud!

Like Anthony, I miss the time: It used to be much easier to get time from your prospects and customers! So much so, that it was important to train and coach salespeople to not waste their time with prospects and customers that aren't serious. Qualification is still important of course, but it was another level 'back in the day' - a poor qualifier could easily spend all day, every day in meetings that were going nowhere - I don't miss the wasted time - but I do miss the easier access to customers and prospects earlier in the sales cycle. Today most customers have the luxury of learning about products and solutions online in a way that they couldn't in the past and that means scheduling their time is tougher because you aren't bringing that 'Education' value that you did as a field sales representative in the past.

I miss tradeshows where you really got to introduce people to something new that they'd never seen before. Again, this is all about the pace of information exchange these days - By the time you get a product to a trade show now, it's been pre-promoted online - people have seen a simulator and a presentation online and they feel like they know what the product is all about - even though they may have never actually seen it live. In the not-too-distant past - Product Launches really happened at trade shows. Some of the audience had never even heard of the new product and its capabilities when they came out to the show - you had the opportunity to wow them in a way that is truly rare today! What I don't miss about Trade Shows from the same era is the truly inappropriate misogynistic things that used to go on. I'll spare everyone the details, but we truly live in a better more balanced world today on this front - and that's a good thing! The final comment on trade shows is another miss, and one that I think could be due for a comeback - if handled well: I miss customer hospitality suites. When I came into the industry it was a common practice to host not only a trade show booth during the normal show hours but also host a night or two in a Hotel Suite where you could invite some key customers to enjoy some hors d'oeuvres, cocktails and personalized presentations of some of the product innovations that you were displaying on the show floor. These Hospitality Suites allowed for more detailed conversations with key customers in a much more conducive environment than a show floor. It's really common on show floors in Europe to this day to have some of these elements on your booth - (it's comparatively rare to do this in the Americas) but these booth-based presences are a pale imitation of the old-school Hospitality Suite. I remember booking significant stocking orders from partners at these events which was a lot more satisfying than making some calls the way it is typically done today.

In Anthony's article that inspired mine, he mentions the pager! For me, the pager is one that I really don't miss! I started my career in Toronto - and Toronto has real winters! I had an inside sales rep for about 18 months who was probably about 10 to 15 years my senior and who was bitter about his lack of progress and my rapid advancement in the same company. I think I've trauma blocked his name because it won't come back to me now - but this guy would wait until it was a bitterly cold, miserable winter day and then send me a 911 Page (which was our code for Call Immediately) - This usually meant that I had to search for a phone booth, pull off the road and call back in the bitter cold with the wind blowing. The punchline was always: "Hey, just wanted to see if it was cold out there?" Obviously, I only put up with this a couple of times before putting my foot down and getting it stopped - but the fact is there were many legitimate pages that made me do the same thing. I HATED THAT PAGER! and I think smartphones are an unbelievable tool that can't be replaced!

The Sales Meeting as an event. Maybe it's just me or maybe it's the companies that I've worked for in the last 10 to 15 years but it seems like the destination sales meeting for Partners and our internal teams is something that budgets have dried up for. I've been to some great destinations over the years as part of sales meetings! These destination meetings brought energy and enthusiasm to both the channel partners and my company's internal teams that an "Online Launch" or a Virtual Product Introduction just can't match. I realize that these event-style meetings were very expensive, and I'm sure that especially in a business climate where they were more common they probably didn't sufficiently differentiate their hosts - or justify their costs - But, in today's environment where they are much less frequent, I would submit that those that are hosting these types of meetings (I do realize some still happen) are probably getting strong loyalty and ROI - but, I'm equally sure that it's really hard to measure and quantify this! This gets to the last thing I miss in today's connected world - I think we all fail to just give things a trial run like we might have when we had fewer data sources. I think a lot of businesses wait for perfect information because we've become spoiled and expect. Sometimes - just trying something, deploying it, and seeing how it works is just efficient. I miss leaders who will make that trial investment - whether it's on a product solution or in hosting an event!