Apr 01 2007
I Sell, You Sell, We Sell, They Sell - Let’s Be Proud Of It!
Business people, certainly here in the UK, have devalued selling for far too long and some unenlightened managers with a very narrow commercial band-width, have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they? As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman” or a “Saleswoman”.
When was the last time you were introduced to a professional salesperson who when you asked what field they were in, said openly, honestly and with pride: “Oh, I sell”
No, rather most salespeople prefer to disguise their true job title behind euphemisms such as: “Sales Engineer”, “Account Executive”, “Technical Consultant” etc. But nowadays we have to accept that we all sell everyday - doctors, lawyers, estate agents, architects, politicians, teachers, accountants…. The baby crying in the pram is selling to be picked up; the dog tugging at your trouser leg is selling to be taken out for a walk (unless he is someone else’s dog, in which case he is trying to bite you) – but you take my point.
In the commercial arena, the fact remains that anyone who is in business has to sell themselves and their products - and the so called “Captains of Industry” - Branson, Roddick, Marshall, Hanson, Gates, Dell and Co. are thought to be amongst the best salespeople in the world.
It therefore follows that the quality and success of our salespeople will ultimately determine the success of our business: Certainly the world has become more competitive and in order to survive and prosper we need to continually expand and develop the skill sets of our sales teams.
Sir John Harvey-Jones said “Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling”
Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in a continually “re-engineering” environment, must, in my view, respond to those realities.
In summary: Our commercial functions, particularly the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives – i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all that investment in costly accounting software, new office equipment, expensive IT systems etc. will count for nothing. We can therefore say with complete confidence, that selling really is the key factor in the total marketing process.
We are just fourteen days away from the launch of “Top 10 Sales Articles” and the excitement is really mounting! The publicity machine is rolling and the interviews start next week – I will give you more details soon, but I can announce the adjudication panel of top sales experts. You will notice that we now have a team of very “big hitters” with years of experience, acres of wisdom and masses of talent.
In alphabetical order they are: Wally Adamchik, Joanne Black, John Boe, Kim Duke, Kevin Dwyer, Colleen Francis, Joe Heller, David Kahle, Jill Konrath, Steve Martinez, Andrea Nierenberg, Terri Roulette McCartney, Wendy Weiss and Jacques Werth.
There will most likely be additions before kick-off date, so watch this space.
And finally, two further articles for you this week:
On Group site: www.thejfagroup.com I have posted “Sales Team Development – What Are The Options?”
“In to-day’s highly competitive selling environment, there is less room for apprenticeship, as organisations need to see a swift return on their investment.Therefore, Sales Directors need to allow sufficient time to enable their investment in training and development to pay of”. Continue Reading.
Whilst on my personal site: www.jonathanfarrington.com you will find, “What Makes A Successful Team”
“The organisational structure of a team is important. Who does what, how one job relates to another, the lines of reporting and communication – all affect effectiveness. This is something to continually re-assess. You should, therefore…… Continue Reading.
That’s it – as ever, have a great week and thank you for coming back every week.
JF
PS: You can read all of my published work in March - “Month In Review” - just look for the clock image in the right hand column.
believe it or not, that is not only a UK problem, that occurs in the United States as well, particularly with the generation of 40s and over…It is amazing that they don’t make the link that if someone doesn’t sell, they don’t get paid…