Why the world needs better salespeople and how to make/find them

You know how this goes... if you're part of a large company - or if you work for any company, for that matter - you get pitched by salespeople. If your company happens to have a sales function or department, you work with or encounter them. In both contexts, the fact remains the same: we need better salespeople.

Salespeople make me all Grinchy

Look, I know how important your commission is to you. I practiced real estate for two years back when I lived in Arizona, and let me tell you - it's a dog eat dog eat cow eat hippo kind of world out there. But however competitive the sales environment may be, it's important to remain approachable, warm, and likeable amidst going door-to-door, making cold calls, and just having everyday, run-of-the-mill conversations with people.

I've had far too many exchanges with salespeople that have gone like this:

SP: Hi Tim, how are you? [add question that is tailored toward something they know about me]

Me: I'm good. Thanks for asking [about that thing that was tailored toward me].

I then go in to expound further on the personal thing they asked me about. Within 10 seconds, I see the eyes diverting or shifting to a gaze of hearing the ocean. They've stopped listening. Now, if they're on the phone, it's a little harder to detect exactly what they're doing or thinking.

Some cues for salespeople not listening to you might include:

• Lots of "right... right... rights"
• Silence (with no follow-up question)
• Immediate interruption or continued schmoozing that doesn't allow you to get a word in edgewise.
• Immediate transition to the matter at hand before you can actually answer their question

If salespeople do any of the above before starting into their spiel, I feel so Grinchy. I don't want them to have their Christmas (commission); I want them to stop singing (pitching me)! For this relationship to work, a sales person is going to have to look at their heart that is three sizes too small.

Reputation management 101

I've always wondered what draws a person to the sales profession. Is it the money/commission? Is it the low barrier to entry to start? Is it the thrill and the hunt of chasing someone down and winning them over? Is it the travel? The people they encounter every day? (Full disclosure: I got into real estate to supplement my income as a full-time marketing professional. That's it.)

Regardless of how many persons a sales professional interacts or works with, they need to start with looking at their person. Because if I don't like you, I'm not going to like your product or service.

For the sake of not throwing anyone under the bus, I won't list here the hundreds of companies that have pitched me over the course of my career and left a bad taste in my mouth or left me detesting their product. But why isn't it more clear to salespeople that they could literally tarnish a company's reputation by exhibiting character faults or lacking sound emotional intelligence? I mention the latter because, as someone with high emotional intelligence developed over many years of self-discovery and exploration, I can tell you there's something behind those character faults and those very off-putting non-verbals.

Pressure. The pressure to meet goals, quotas, numbers, whatever you want to call it. The pressure to A-B-C (always be closing). The pressure to always have a pipeline bursting with activity. The pressure of not knowing how to pay the mortgage if you've had a bad month. For that, I sympathize with salespeople. But I didn't choose this profession for you, so please don't be abrasive, rude, impatient, or desperate ('c'mon man, do me a favor' type language), because you haven't closed a deal yet for that day/week/month.

And here's the thing - I will gladly help you out. But you need to show you actually care about me and my needs, not the other way around. Here's an example of how this works:

In Apple TV+'s new dramedy series, "The Morning Show" (which is excellent, by the way), there's a scene where head booker Hannah Schoenfeld connects with an old friend because she is in desperate need of a favor. From her previous work with this friend, she knows this friend of hers has a political connection that would make a rushed segment a viewing/ratings phenom. In the scene, Hannah is all business approaching her friend. She starts out with the typical "how are you?" and goes right in for the kill. But her friend is so taken aback and offended by her ask. Why? Because her friend's needs weren't met long ago. People remember things, especially things that hurt them. Hannah didn't go to her friend's going-away party. She didn't come to her birthday. She had a history of disregarding her friend.

What did Hannah do? She didn't hang up the phone and say what many a salespeople say to themselves when a lead feels or turns cold: "So what, who's next? I've got calls to make". She became human by admitting her faults and apologizing. What did her friend do? She gave her the connection/the business that made Hannah a standout at the network. Even though she's a booker for a TV morning show, Hannah is most definitely a sales professional. If she doesn't get talent, she doesn't get paid. She's got to fill the pipeline with quality leads and convert them. Pressure for sure. But when it's done right, MAN does it feel good.

The truth: your pitch sucked

Now I am going to let salespeople in on a secret from the receiver of myriad pitches by phone, email, text, social: If I didn't respond, your pitch sucked. That is it. And if I never saw it because you pitched me in an email and that email got buried, that means that channel of communication was ineffective, not that I don't care or that I'm ignoring you. Believe me - if you've got something valuable to share with me, I want to hear about it. And that's not just me, that's everyone.

But crap form emails or weird, personalized "let's meet" or "it's been a while" messages don't cut it. Honestly, I'd be way more impressed if you got my out of office reply and leveraged that knowledge to pitch me to start. It would go like this:

SP: Hi Tim, I know you just returned to office. Did you go anywhere fun or were you just taking some time away?

Me: [I would say what I did and the SP would listen intently, then transition to the matter at hand]

Voila, you'd have my attention. I'd listen to your spiel. We'd go out for coffee when you're in town. We'd have lunch. We'd go to a baseball game. I'd invite you to my kid's birthday party. You've earned my trust, we can be friends, I can give you 5 referrals. That's literally all you would have to do to start out our relationship and you can eventually have all of that. And here's what makes this even more valuable for you. Because I treat people how I want to be treated, my referrals like me, and because they like me, they'll like anyone I send to them because I like them. Did you follow that? That's how good sales relationships work.

Things that don't work and that I and many people - and the Grinch himself - loathe entirely:

• Form emails
• "Do me a favor" exchanges or questionable quid-pro-quo
• Direct mail pieces (where I have no idea how you got my address. Actually I do know because of being in real estate and farming your house, but just saying this to prove a point)
• Shopping the company a.k.a. blasting everyone with emails/phone calls/LinkedIn private messages or inmails, etc.
• Form responses (after connecting on social with people) pitching your product or service
• Form anything
• Fake smiles, laughs, elbow rubs, slaps on the back
• Going door-to-door. (With surveillance cameras and Ring-like products coupled with the trending need to preserve and protect people's privacy nowadays, just don't do this, unless you want to invite an 8-year-old to your open house).

Remember that the value of a person (lead) goes beyond the money and connections you make. It starts with treating the person you're pitching as not just valuable but valued. That is key, hence why it's bolded, italicized, and underlined. In so doing, you'll be a sales professional that isn't negatively turning heads, being avoided like the plague, and repeatedly on everyone's naughty list.

Thanks for reading,

Tim