Thinking of NOT starting a career in sales? Think again!

Forewords: I'd want to thank my coworkers and friends for reading this piece and contributing helpful information. Thanks to your feedback, I was able to identify my blind spots and write an article that I hope would inspire others as exceptional as you!

The student was nervously looking at his professor, waiting for feedback: he had been working on his master's thesis about the impact of psychological safety on teams, and he was curious whether he would be satisfied. Suddenly, the professor inquired: "So, where do you want to work? You appear to be more engaged in human resources than in investment banking or management consultancy ". The student seemed bewildered for a second as he was not anticipating that question, but then he answered confidently: "In Sales!". The professor was taken aback: "Do you want to work in sales? With such an impressive academic record? ". There was an unsettling pause that followed.

This situation might ring a bell to some of us. It happened to me during my university time:?still today, a sizeable chunk of people look down on Sales jobs, thinking that it is a repetitive and dishonest job for sleazy people with average intelligence. A job where everything is repeated mindlessly to get more and more customers to buy. The belief holds especially true for people with higher education: "I come from a good University. Why should I even bother to work in Sales?", as I heard from time to time. In the words of my dear colleague Tobias Renk : "It is a profession that has easy entrance barriers which means a lot of people think of sales as just another job with good money but not of it as a profession where you have to also be at your top and improve every day. Not like other professions like lawyers, doctors, etc. where you need years of studies and knowledge before you do the job, still nowadays too many people just work in sales for the wrong reasons and don't want to improve. This results in why only the top 5% are high-earning, consistently successful salespeople. And also why we have still a challenge with our reputation as people keep making up job titles on LinkedIn, are not even proud themselves to say they work in sales and do not feel the need to self develop constantly".?

Indeed, finding talent in Sales is incredibly difficult.

But why do people have such an opinion of Sales? I believe it is because of preconceptions. Cambridge dictionary defines preconceptions as: "An idea or opinion formed before enough information is available to form it correctly". I would add that assumptions are typically passed down from parents or immediate social groups, and they are the product of people observing a distant reality. But here's the catch: preconceptions are a form of persistent belief: they continue even after the underlying reality has changed. This mode of thinking, I believe, stems from "old traditions" in which people were told to sell in a more transactional manner. Back in the 1950s, the popular picture was of a used car salesman or a door-to-door salesperson expounding on the qualities and benefits of a product. Not to imply that these realities have vanished entirely: there are still organizations that employ archaic best practices, perhaps the same realities where "sleazy" behaviours are not only tolerated but sought of.

Back in the 1950s, the popular picture was of a used car salesman or a door-to-door salesperson expounding on the qualities and benefits of a product.

Hollywood also did not help with misconceptions. Masterworks such as "Glengarry Glen Ross" (which you should watch!) and its "always be closing" mentality grew popular and contributed to the public's perception of how a sales department should operate. Again, this type of hyper-aggressive, masculinist, sexist, and toxic behavior does not disappear overnight, but it is getting less common.

Sales divisions must now operate in a totally different manner, which benefits not just the clients but also the employees. Why? Because the world has changed dramatically, and it will continue to change rapidly in the future. What was the impetus behind the change in Sales? Information availability.Traditional "salesmen" (the language was not very inclusive at the time!) used aggressive tactics based on a largely uninformed customer base. Before the internet, it would take a considerable amount of time to be educated about a product. Nowadays buyers' behaviour changed. Easy access to the internet, social media, review websites, networks, and apps have made it super easy for the client to be incredibly savvy about a product. The information asymmetry between the buyer and the seller almost disappeared or at least has been radically reduced.

Sales divisions must now operate in a totally different manner, which benefits not just the clients but also the employees. Why? Because the world has changed dramatically, and it will continue to change rapidly in the future.

At the same time, because of the speed of information, the potential buyer is bombarded all the time by salespeople: it becomes less and less easy to access a client, and more and more difficult to convey a bit of information that would make the client interested.

As a result, sales - especially B2B but not only - looks more and more like a work of "Consultancy at Scale": it looks similar to traditional consulting firms but goes less in-depth and on a wider range of products and verticals. I understand that for some of you the comparison is far-fetched, but think about it: in traditional consulting, a consultant spends months on the same projects, going to work to their client's premises to understand how to solve a complex problem. The result is the sales of a service.

As a result, sales - especially B2B but not only - looks more and more like a work of "Consultancy at Scale".

In B2B Sales departments, the seller is selling either a tangible or intangible product by matching the buyers' needs with the best combination of the products you offer in a hope that he or she will convert into a long-term loyal customer, perhaps even a champion. Like consultants the seller is also selling and, differently than 50 years ago, they are required to understand in depth their clients.?

So, in detail what the Sales world looks like today?

• Sales evolved from an "always be closing" approach to a solution-oriented approach, sharing some similarities with consulting. Salespeople became more similar to consultants: they are requested to truly understand the client's needs and be experts in their vertical. It is not sufficient anymore to know your products and your competitors, you need to understand, for example, how the banking sector operates in a specific geo-political context. Same for a lot of other sectors and verticals. Why? Because clients' needs are complex as the world is more complex: the needs will change not only according to the type of product you sell but also according to the business model your clients operate into, their competitive landscape, the macroeconomic situation they operate in, and a lot of other variables.
• As a consequence, you act as a trusted Advisor (a step further from being a consultant), as you will show the client that not only he or she can trust you but that you are an expert in both your and his or her field. Being sleazy will not pay off: it will only result in the customer not wanting to do any more business with the company you are working for. We are in a knowledge economy: a dissatisfied customer will write about a bad experience with your company. This will make your and your colleagues' job even harder. We all know then how fast information propagates nowadays with the abundance of real-time communication tools.
• The products are now incredibly complex like the customer needs. Salespeople's brain is tested and pushed to the limits, even in SMB: the work there might seem repetitive, but the real brain challenge is figuring out how to acquire clients at scale, which is extremely difficult.?
• Sales is becoming more data-driven, with a variety of implications. For example, companies are increasingly understanding - through empirical research - that the "lone wolf" type is not necessarily their best performer. At the same time, they can understand better which best practices and tactics yield the maximum outcome with consistency. Therefore new jobs like sales strategy, sales operations, and sales enablements became more and more popular.?
• Concepts like psychological safety, feedback driven culture, and sharing are increasingly adopted. High-performance sales departments are nowadays almost on the opposite spectrum of "Glengarry Glen Ross". Decades of empirical management research have shown that if you do not let your people ask questions, voice concerns, and make reasoned mistakes you are setting yourself up to fail. Why so? Because usually salespeople are the holders of precious key information about new trends, letting people speak freely and without fear of retaliation will help this critical piece of information flow. In the past fear driven hierarchies would work because some sectors were more static, so passing this information bottom up would not be critical. Today it is becoming more and more imperative for data to go up to C-level. This is however only possible if people feel safe to speak (psychological safety) as a precondition and if a company encourage a feedback driven culture at all level. At the same time, again through empirical evidence, the role of synergies is becoming evident: that is, if everybody shares their best practices then everybody is better off.
• The Sales Persona required for the job is changing. The lone aggressive wolf is not anymore the to-go choice. Breakthrough sales frameworks based on evidence like for example the "Challenger Sales", clearly demonstrated that the Lone Wolf could be one of your worst performers when compared with other types of sales persona. Nowadays high performance sales organisations seek people that have a tremendous amount of people related skills, far beyond sales: listening actively, objection handling through positive reflections and empathy.
• The Sales manager requirements are also changing. All the changes above mentioned created the need for a different type of management, able to lead a radically different workforce. High-performance sales organisations are encouraging managers to move away from fear and micro-managing into giving freedom with responsibility. Authenticity and vulnerability are replacing an "I know it all" or "you better do this, else..." approach. However empirical evidence suggests, rightly so, that people are smarter than some people think. As a result, authenticity and vulnerability cannot be faked in the long run. In truly high-performance sales organisations managers that willingly avoid creating an authentic rapport with their peers are shown the door. While it seems brutal, it is a way to protect sales teams by maintaining a positive culture of collaboration.

If you are not yet convinced about starting a career in sales, then you can reflect on these advantages:

• In addition to negotiation and sales skills, you will gain an absurd quantity of people-related skills. As the world is becoming more and more complex, you will learn analytical skills as well. Successful salespeople today must learn to make sense of a wide set of data: from finding the data to visualising it.?
• It is suitable for both extroverts and introverts. My coworker Gonzalo Gutierrez Espinosa made this extremely valid remark to me, and it is really true. While traditionally, great salespeople were thought to be highly extroverted individuals, there is now a nice balance of both. The reason for this is that today's jobs require a wide range of talents, including the capacity to actively listen and think deeply, which I feel introverts naturally excel at. At the same time, personality can provide insight into attitudes, but a person can also gain contrary talents. Introverts will teach extroverts vital skills, and vice versa.
• You will receive thorough training not only during the onboarding period, but throughout your sales career. High-performance sales organisations understand the importance of continuing training and assistance.
• You will meet many brilliant entrepreneurs that you will struggle to make sense of what you learn along the way. You will develop long-term relationships that will help you expand your network, especially if you function as a Trusted Advisor.
• It is one of the hardest jobs, so there will be a lot of challenges. However, you will have clear KPIs and OKRs. Nothing will be ever vague in Sales. If you perform, nobody can take it away from you. You will learn to be accountable and responsible for yourself and your self-improvement.
• Despite being difficult, it can also be a lot of fun. I worked in various roles, but the enthusiasm in a "human-centered sales organization" (a Sales organization propelled by a good culture) is difficult to find elsewhere.
• You can choose different exit career paths. Remember that at least 50% of CEOs come from Sales (if you are interested in that path!). Some other exit roles can be people management, sales strategist (StratOps, SalesOps), management consultant, Head of Department, Marketing roles, Sales Enablement, and Recruitment. The exit job can be at your present company, in a new company (sales skills are extremely transferable), OR working at one of your client's companies. This exit strategy does not pertain anymore to strategy consultants: it applies more and more to salespeople. In turn, this will be another motivation to sell in the interest of your client.
• If you are not still convinced, think about the impact you can have. You can see successful sales as a partnership where both players (you and the client) win. In a masterpiece selling, the salesperson takes home a success story and a new advocate of our brand. Think about your most affectionate client and countless other people that are ready to vouch for you and your product. Perhaps some of them will participate in your internal conferences and meetings because they are so enthusiastic about your work and the solutions you sold to them. And why? Because the client will not only suffer a cash flow out, but you will have likely solved a complex problem.

The scope of the article is to give a complementary point of view about how sales, in my personal opinion, is evolving. Of course, this is not a black-and-white evolution. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are and there will always be sales organisations using transactional methodologies rooted in a pre-information era. However, I assume that these organisations will be squeezed by the increasing ability of the end customers to be truly educated about the different products offered for each specific need.

I wanted to make graduates and people searching for a new career aware of what I experienced, observed, and learned over more than 10 years using a variety of different sources (books, university papers, influencers, and different people in my network).

It is essential to be passionate about what you are selling and the impact you can have if you are considering a career in sales. And how can you sell effectively? This is a difficult topic to explain in a short article, but I have attempted to do so in this: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/better-way-sell-rise-empathetic-sales-guido-petillo/

Disclaimer: “The views stated here are my own, not those of the companies I work or worked for.”