Are Great Salespeople Bred Or Raised?
In today’s day and age, are good salespeople undervalued? We think so!
My experience in 28 years of sales is that you can help someone be a serviceable earner, but only G-d almighty can create a great salesperson! That’s a fact! If you are in the business of hand holding and coddling, then you will disagree with my assertion. And frankly, I don’t care. HR people and sales trainers will hate this blog. Because they are compensated on developing and hiring the next generation of salespeople. They want to control the process and take credit for it. Salespeople are like a brotherhood! Like 1st responders in a business sense. Brothers/sisters of the road. We all have a thousand war stories of getting blown up on a sales call but coming back and scoring the deal. Closing deals are our lifeblood and we all have it pulsing through our veins like oil through a pipeline!
If you are a great salesperson, you can sell anything! PERIOD. I get on the phone 30+ times a day and with minimal prep (because I like my thoughts to be fresh and not rehearsed unlike those order takers that read scripts) and I shred it every day! I have a passion to quickly analyze a company’s issues like Dr. Phil of business and start trying to nurse the “patient” back to health! All salespeople think this way!
Most everything in business stems from common sense, and it’s shocking how few people possess that simple skill set. Great salespeople have and utilize it everyday. Whether you are selling a service or a product, you know your business so well, have given yourself to that opportunity in a way that things in your personal life sometimes suffer at the expense of success.
My experience is that I can take a good salesperson and make them great. I can’t make a salesperson from an account management person or from a logistics person. Even if they are great at what they do! Too many employees make the cardinal sin of thinking because they are in the SALES PROCESS, that they are salespeople! Tisk, Tisk! Bad move. You are great at being support people and we in sales need and appreciate all that you do. But never confuse what you do with putting yourself out there the way a salesperson does, to be judged, to have people ignore you.
Remember one thing and one thing only, Salespeople are in the NO business! We hear NO at such a higher percentage rate compared to Yes. Salespeople have financial responsibility not just for themselves or their families but for everyone in the company. One of my first jobs, I was the only salesperson in the company. When I went on sales trips at 22 years old, all the employees would see me off and wish me luck because if I didn’t close deals, they risked not getting paid! That’s pressure, and that’s the point here.
Salespeople are cut from a very special cloth. If you hate this blog, I can guarantee only one thing in life… YOU WILL NEVER BE A SALESPERSON!
