What's the deal with hating Sales?

So here's what I've noticed, and perhaps you have experienced it too.

I walk into a store, completely intent on purchasing something. Then when the first salesperson approaches me with a jaunty, "How can I help you today?" I immediately change my mind on being parted with my money.

It's the old dichotomy. We all love shopping, we dislike being sold to.

And here's the worst thing. I'm a salesperson! Like, for 25 years to my credit. If I dislike being sold to, there must be an issue with the entire process, right?

It's not just me, unfortunately. In my current profession, I help entrepreneurs to get over their fear of selling, and to make the process efficient, repeatable, scale-able, and measurable.

Still, I hear it all the time from my clients:

• "Won't they just think I'm trying to sell something to them?"
• "I was going to go talk to them, but the idea of sales made me feel icky."
• "I have a hard time not being 'salesy'."

So I went to work to figure out just what is happening here. What is the problem with this particular human activity?

What I discovered is there are many reasons for this distaste. But I'll be concentrating on the Top 5.

1. Many people don't know what sales is.

Sales suffers from both too broad a definition, and at the same time, too narrow a definition.

In the simplest form, sure, we get it. Sales is the act of selling something. Duh.

In the widest form, we get a little confused, mixing sales with marketing, transaction skills, and worst of all, simple order taking. Let me repeat that last one. Order taking is, in no way, sales.

So how should we define it? I look at it this way. Anything that comes between marketing (the efforts taken to bring clients to you) and accounting (the efforts to make the most out of the results of your transactions) is sales.

Everything from the first "Hello," to the final "Thank you so much for your business. See you soon."

Sales.

If you don't believe me, that sales is far more than, "Let me ring that up for you," let me give you another example. Have you ever prepared for a date and changed your clothes three or more times because you wanted to make the exact right impression?

Sales.

Opening up the idea of what sales is might seem to make it even scarier for some, but here's the thing. You've got to have a process to make it manageable. And there is a process. More on that later.

2. Crap stereotypes of what makes a good salesperson.

Wolf of Wall Street, I'm looking at you. Glengarry Glenn Ross sit down, you're not off the hook either.

Lets face it, we get inundated by terrible role models for sales. Pushy, rude, obnoxious behaviour seems to be the stereotype in these examples. Entertaining to be sure, but never to be taken as the serious ideal of salespeople.

Think about the anecdotes that describe sales too.

"They could sell a glass of water to a drowning man."

"They could sell snow to an Eskimo."

I mean, not only does that last one have a derogatory term in it, both ideas are harmful to the extreme.

I get that people came up with these saying to show how successful a salesperson is, but neither of these instances are sales.

They contain a healthy amount of manipulation, however. Which is not the same. Like. Ever.

Instead of these "ideals", I'd like you to think about the last time you had a wonderful service experience from someone that ended in you purchasing something.

See, now we're getting closer to what sales should be.

3. An awful lot of people out there just aren't taught how.

My wife and I were shopping for appliances for our current house and we went into a local store hoping to find ones we liked. A salesperson who asked us what we were looking for greeted us.

"We're looking for some stainless steel appliances," I said. There was a bit of blinking going on, so I added, "Fridge and stove. You know."

Spurred on by my verbal nudge, she pointed over her left arm to the appliance standing a foot away and said, "Here's a fridge."

I really wish that I made that story up.

Basically, there are many people, in retail especially, who have not had training in the proper art of the sale. Therefore, your experience with these individuals has been... let's call it "sub par".

And honestly, we see it so often, we might feel that's what a salesperson should be.

Aw, hell no! We need to expect more from the people who are selling to us. A lot more than pointing at the fridge.

4. They just don't care.

Same experience as with Part 3, but the reason you're having such a poor experience with your salesperson is that they do not care about their job.

You know them. It's probably just a McJob to them. Something to tide them over to the next semester or until the big break at their actual dream job comes around.

The awful truth is, sales is difficult.

Think about it this way if you don't think it's hard. From a very early age you are told, "Don't talk to strangers, don't be nosy, don't brag, don't act like a know-it-all, and don't interfere in the lives of others."

But as a salesperson, in a very short time, becomes friends with strangers on the regular, you investigate how your products or services will make their lives better, set yourself up as the subject expert, know everything with certainty about your product or service, and make your ultimate recommendation that you know will change their lives for the better.

Yeah. It's that hard.

Not caring about sales just isn't an option if you would like to be successful at it. Willpower and know-how are the two key ingredients to even be competent.

5. Incorrect Commissioning

Ugh. This one is the most insidious.

You may deal with someone who has sufficient training, they really care about being successful at sales, and they even truly care about improving your life with the product or service you will purchase.

However, the company that this person works for has set their commission structure completely incorrectly. When commissions aren't behaviour related or at least gated, they can cause their sales staff to take some very unsavoury actions.

This can cause the salespeople behaving against their sales knowledge, against the benefit of the customer, and even against the betterment of the company itself.

Trust me, I've seen it happen from the inside, and witnessed it from the outside.

In defence of these companies, having been responsible for creating two commission structures for an enormous company in my previous career, the balance of sales needs, and sales behaviours is difficult to maintain.

All I can ask here is that if you commission your frontline sales staff, then continue to spot check on commission instigated behaviour, and make adjustments.

What now?

"Okay Jason, but how does this information help me?"

Fair question. What I'm hoping is that all these reasons we undeservedly dislike sales have resonated with you. Did you recognise the encounters I shared above? Do you see how it's unfair to paint the industry with the brush of some poor interactions and stereotypes?

And, if you're an entrepreneur, new or existing, the sole employee or have a small staff, please understand that sales is not a bad activity when done correctly.

With that in mind, lets revisit those comments from my clients above:

• "Won't they just think I'm trying to sell something to them?" - Well, they might. But lets not be mind readers and understand that while they might think you're trying to sell them something, they should feel at least equally serviced during the interaction.
• "I was going to go talk to them, but the idea of sales made me feel icky." - This one's on you. And I'm sure that if we discuss it further, we would find that at least one of the five reasons above has reinforced your negative thoughts about it being 'icky'.
• "I have a hard time not being 'salesy'." - This is where you need a process. And there is one! Promise!

I teach people every day about my 5+1 step sales procedure that is rock solid and repeatable.

Now, I say "my", but the fact is, the proper sales procedure hasn't changed since the dawn of modern times. I've been through 32 courses, certifications, and training modules over my 25 years of sales experience. At least one created back in the 1920s. What I've found is that each one of them tries to add their own bells and whistles, charts and formulae, diagrams and graphs, all in the attempt to make 'their' process proprietary.

It's all the same. All of it. And the ones who made it the most complicated, were the systems that were the least successful in my opinion.

So if you'd like to follow me here on LinkedIn, or contact me for more of a one-on-one experience, what I'll present to you is the boiled down, most basic, and most successful, version of the Sales Process.

I look forward to hearing about your successes as you put this system into practice.

Thank you for taking the time to read along.

Stay Awesome.