I Don't Think of Myself as a Salesperson

"I don't think of myself as a salesperson." I hear salespeople say this all of the time. They think that if they position themselves as a "consultant" or even better a "small business owner" or "entrepreneur" that it somehow better validates their role in business more than being "just a salesperson." I have a truly heartbreaking announcement to make to those people:

"YOU ARE ALL SALESPEOPLE!!!!!!!!"

If your primary or one of your primary roles in your company is to "meet with potential and/or existing clients, develop & propose solutions and then reach an agreement for a contract" you are a salesperson. The fact that you may also then implement those solutions and continue to manage the project until it is completed does not invalidate your sales role at the beginning.

I am writing this today because: first I know lots of sales people (myself included) and second I know lots of people that hate salespeople.

Even in a bad economy there are always sales jobs to be had, and the better you are at sales the more opportunities you have. There is a lot of risk and, as a result, a lot of reward in sales. Many of the truly successful people you know are either in sales now or started in sales and moved up the chain of command from there.

Good sales require:
Leadership
Industry Knowledge
The ability to listen and comprehend a customer's needs.
The ability to admit mistakes when you makes them.
The ability to fix mistakes, regardless of who made them.

The problem with sales (and the main reason so many people hate us) is that there are a lot of untrained idiots out there who really have no idea how to sell but were hired as a "warm body" to keep headcount at the proper level and "who knows maybe this one can sell." Very few people are born with the ability to sell. The rest of us have to start out and learn from training, reading and our mistakes. So you get sales people who sell by lying. You get salespeople who sell by omitting information. You get salespeople who sell by flat out cheating. Sound familiar? That is why people hate us so much.

Frankly, it's a big part of the reason that I really don't cold call anymore. If I call on 100 people who dont know me. Maybe 1 or 2 of them will give me an opportunity to do business with them. The other 98 told me to get out, used profanity or called security because "there's no soliciting in this building sir." People like to say that as a convenient way to avoid talking to you but according to www.dictionary.com  to "solicit" means " to make a request, application, or entreaty to (a person for business, support, etc)."  Now I could be wrong but I think the simple act of having a storefront or an office where you meet with clients/customers is the same thing? I really get a good laugh when I see an office with a "no soliciting" sign on the front door but I also know that they have multiple salespeople as direct employee's. "Don't bother me, I am too busy teaching my sales people how to overcome no soliciting signs." it's laughable
Then I have people say to me "well if we need you we will call you."  Really? And how will you go about calling me? You didn't take my business card and you certainly didn't bother to write down my name and number? Look, I get it, stupid sales people are annoying. They generally don't know their product and they really don't know where to get answers, they are trying to swoop in and make a quick buck. They tend to be completely unprofessional or you get the opposite where they "overdo it:" and show up in a fancy suit and go out of their way to impress you when they should instead listen to you and build a relationship.
I actually know two people who I used to consider friends that both own marketing companies and don't consider themselves salespeople. In both cases they didn't like the fact that I called someone they knew and when I spoke to that person mentioned I was friends with them. Not they were customers, not we have worked together, FRIENDS. They thought this inappropriate and that if I wanted to contact theses people I should have asked them first......
I'm gonna let that sink in for a minute. The very notion that a "salesman" told someone they know that he is friends with them was so repulsive to them that both of them decided to no longer be friends with me. 
My advice to you people: take a long hard look in the mirror, know what your looking at? A salesperson, get over it.

Thanks for reading today,

Mike Shelah

BTW, be sure to read my fundraising blog www.40milesforautism.blogspot.com