How To Overcome the False and Silly Misperceptions of Salespeople

In his (excellent!) book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink offers a concise response to the following man-on-the-street query: “I say salesperson; you say ________.”

Care to take a guess at the number one response?

If you said, “talented and good-looking” I appreciate your positive nature but I pity your delusional worldview.

No, the number one response: Pushy.

I’m not here to offer commentary on whether the general public is accurate in their assessment.

Actually, I’d like to expand on their response.

Assume for a moment that you have nothing to do with the world of sales. Now, answer the following question: “Describe that typical pushy salesperson. What does he/she look like”?

I have asked that question to audiences many, many times. Here are some of the most common answers:

• Male (A man. Always a man! Why this sexist view persists eludes me.)
• Slick Suit
• Product in the Hair
• Bling
• Chest Hair
• Loud Shoes
• Corvette

At some point in the sales presentation you just know this guy is going to look at you with earnest expectation, wink, hitch up his trousers and say, “What’s it gonna take to get you into this product today”?

He must do this. He must act this way. After all, coffee is for closers.

coffee-is-for-closers

Now let me ask you a totally different question.

Besides yourself and your sales cohorts, do you personally know a sales representative? A friend or family member? Perhaps someone you’ve done repeat business with?

Of course you do. 1 out 9 jobs in the United States is sales-related.

Next question. Does the salesperson you personally know look ANYTHING like the cartoon character we described above?

The answer, of course, is “not even close.”

The salesperson we know is a professional, a decent person with nice children who cracks people up with his Christopher Walken impersonation. (Well, that’s the guy I’m thinking of right now.)

walken_fever

Why the disconnect? How is the image in such direct conflict with the real person?

The answer lies in the study of heuristics, those mental rules of thumb that provide for us cognitive short cuts.

The tendency is to place far too much emphasis on perceptions formed by culture, movies, jokes and cartoons.

Jaws made us terrified of sharks. Glengarry Glen Ross made us terrified of salespeople.

We don’t actually know that pushy, sleazy salesperson, but the image in our minds is so real that we believe he exists out there somewhere.

We can sit here all day long debating whether these perceptions are “fair.” The problem is that we have no claim on that word.

Fair is in the eye of the beholder, and in this case the beholder writes the check.

In other words, fair is a buyer word, not a seller word.

It’s not about fair; it’s about real. And real buyers are carrying these fake caricatures into real sales conversations. Ours is not to reason why; ours is just to…change the heuristic!

If you cherish, as I do, this attribute called “sanity” you would do well to understand that your customer brings a perception that is often false, delusional and potentially dangerous.

But this is their right. They have zero responsibility to change their opinion on such things.

On the contrary, that is your job.

You own the responsibility – all 100% of it – to quickly convince your customer that you are not the beastly caricature they had feared when they got out of the car.

My advice: consider this a game. The customer carries a negative stereotype of the salesperson. The salesperson has decided in advance to stay positive and see the best in the character of the customer.

The winner is the one who persuades the other to come over to their side. It’s negative energy versus positive energy in a cage match to the death!

Your mantra: “I don’t lose”!


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.