My friend, Lori Richardson, published a post on a debate she had with her dentist on salespeople. Describing salespeople, he made the statement, “Yea, those folks that lie and rip people off.” While that phrasing may be extreme, unfortunately we hear things like that every day.
I’ve been a seller or deeply involved in selling virtually all my career, and I cringe with 99% of the stuff that ends up in my Inbox, LI invitations, and others. I never answer a call from a number I don’t recognize. I don’t want to have anything to do with the majority of people trying to “sell” me something.
And we have the research that shows the majority of B2B customers want a rep-free buying experience.
When Daniel Pink asked people the first word that came into their minds when they heard “sales,” the responses were: “pushy, sleazy, yuck, manipulative.” Gallup and Hubspot research place sales people at the bottom of the trust ladder. Hubspot found that only 3% of people consider salespeople trustworthy.
Let’s face it, as a profession, we have a terrible reputation and we’ve earned it!
It’s gotten so bad, often we invent new titles for our jobs because people don’t want to talk to a salesperson. So we call ourselves business development people or account executive, or client success managers or anything to hide the fact that we are sellers. But that doesn’t last, the moment we open our mouths, people know we are salespeople. And the cringe factor comes back in.
Our customers want to buy, they have problems they need to solve, changes they want to make. It’s just they prefer all alternatives to dealing with a salesperson. They have their digital buying journeys, they listen to “influencers,” they do as much as they can to minimize the interaction with a salesperson.
We have to own this. We have created the problem through our own behaviors. We have trained customers to expect self-interest, ignorance of their business, and their problem, and lack of caring for anything except our own quotas. And now we are paying the price.
The antidote to this is not doubling down on these dysfunctional behaviors–though that seems to be what we are doing, particularly in the way we use AI to amplify the noise.
The antidote requires a fundamental shift in how we view our roles and demonstrate them every day in every interaction. It requires a shift in our Mindsets and Behaviors.
We see these every day in consistent high performers, they approach customers and their work differently. What are these differentiators?
- Deep Curiosity: Moving beyond self-centered discovery to genuine understanding of the customer and what they are trying to achieve..
- Continuous Learning: A constant commitment to learn, develop, and grow. And to apply what has been learned in their work.
- Genuine Customer-Centricity: Placing the customer’s outcome first, recognizing seller success only comes after they have achieved their goals.
- Personal Accountability: Owning the result, good or bad. A no excuses mindset.
- Embracing Change and Complexity: Navigating the chaos rather than fearing it, and helping customers navigate this chaos.
- Disciplined Execution: Doing the necessary work, even when no one is watching.
- Caring: Actually giving a damn about the human being across the table.
Without these foundational mindsets and behaviors, sellers are just going through the motions. They continue to do the things that reinforce the “cringe factor” people experience when they hear the word, “salesperson.” And we get the reaction we deserve.
But when we make a different choice, a choice for Sales Excellence, the dynamics change profoundly. Sellers stop being vendors and become trusted advisors. Sellers create tight bonds with their customers. They become the go to resource for future problems and challenges they face.
Sellers have spent decades earning the bad reputation in the way they engage their customers. In the course of doing this, they have settled for being “good enough.”
But given the complexity of today’s buying environment and the skepticism of our customers, we have a choice. We have to ask ourselves, Is “Good Enough” Good Enough?
It’s time to change our reputations. It’s time to move past mediocrity, pursuing excellence, It’s time to stop settling for what we get, to achieving our potential.
But it’s a choice. What will you choose?
Afterword: I explore these concepts deeply in my upcoming book, Is “Good Enough” Good Enough? Mindsets and Behaviors for Sales Excellence. If you are ready to move beyond getting by. If you want to master the behaviors that define top performers, keep an eye out for the release in mid December!
Afterword: This is an outstanding AI generated discussion of this post. One of the terms they use in the conversation is intriguing: “Automation for avoidance.” Listen to hear what it means. Enjoy!
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