Why Are So Many People “Anti-Sales?”
I have been thinking and writing quite a bit lately about the disdain non-sales people express when they even hear the word sales.
Many act as though sales is right beneath the rest of profanity in the dictionary. In fact, some people’s reaction to the word “sales” is more exaggerated than their reaction to ACTUAL profanity.
You know, that odd, I-could-never-do-THAT look when you tell someone sales is your profession.
Or, the obvious physical rejection of the sales process when someone is recanting the memory of buying from the typical salesperson.
All too often customers associate the word sales with negative sentiments and deeply held biases. (For a full treatment, see Daniel Pink’s book To Sell Is Human – plenty of good research on the topic of anti-sales thinking.)
The questions are: Why the discomfort with sales? Why the biases against sales? And, in many cases, why the vitriol direct toward sales people?
The short answer: we earned it.
My guess is that right now there is a voice inside your head saying, “Yeah, but that’s not all salespeople, and it is certainly not me!”
Fine, I will give you the benefit of the doubt on both counts, but that does not make you (or me) innocent.
Too many sales professionals try to creatively mask manipulation in nice, polite, kind, warm and generous ways. Even if the sale is not in the customer’s best interest, but if that buyer feels good about the exchange, no harm, no foul, right?
Enjoy the process of converting leads. Enjoy objections. Appreciate the hunt for the next sale, and get angry when your competitor wins a sale that you had in your grasp.
But beware!
Are you so intent on winning a sale that you act against the best interests of your customer?
Do you rationalize a statement or a technique that moves the sale forward?
Do you mislead buyers away from competition?
Like you, I tend to think that I am looking out for my customers.
At the same time, I know it is healthy to constantly evaluate my motives. I serve customers more fully when I challenge myself with the question, “Is this for them or is this for me?”
I just think it would be wise for all of us to pump the brakes on a regular basis, and to slow down long enough to prioritize the most important question: How do I change this customer’s world?
