What I Believe About Sales

By Jeff Shore

1. I believe sales is a noble profession, and that salespeople who act in the best interest of and service to their customers provide a valuable offering to society.

2. I believe that salespeople should at all times act in the best interest of their customers, and that there is no place for manipulation, exploitation, or trickery as a part of the legitimate sales process.  Neither do I believe that salespeople should sit back and wait for the customer to ask permission to purchase. Sales is about acting in the customer’s best interests, and that includes persuading them to act upon the solution that is right for them.

3. I believe that the sales process must be based upon a position of mutual respect between the sales professional and the customer. The respect of the customer towards the salesperson must be earned. The respect of the salesperson for the customer must be assumed even before the first conversation takes place.

4. I believe that the discovery of the customer’s current situation (and accompanying dissatisfaction) must be the sales professional’s primary task, and must be thoroughly ascertained before an appropriate solution can be presented.

5. I believe that purchasing is primarily an emotional endeavor, and that the salesperson has a responsibility to allow the customer to become involved emotionally in the process.

6. I believe that feature-dumping is the curse of salespeople who do not know their customers well enough. I believe that the demonstration of the product should be seen as the presentation of a solution to a customer’s problems, and that the demonstration should be an interactive discussion, not a one-sided discourse.

7. I believe that terms are best discussed after customer has formed an emotional attachment to the product.

8. I believe that gaining agreements all throughout the sales process is absolutely vital to an effective sales process, and that the customer needs to be involved in a series of small decisions in order to make the right overall conclusion. I believe that asking someone to purchase in a respectful manner is not only appropriate but a valuable part of the service provided, and that forcing a customer to ask permission to purchase is blatantly disrespectful.

9. I believe that the sales process is an ongoing relationship, and like any healthy relationship it relies upon constant communication to be functional and effective.

10. I believe that sales and customer care go hand-in-hand, and that the strongest sales professionals in the world are those who are most dedicated to serving the needs of their customers.