Why it is smart to encourage your millennial to become a salesperson or at least act like one
Because they will “crush it” by learning the number one life work/skill: Relationship Building.
Hollywood’s depiction of the sales profession certainly hasn’t done salespeople any favors. Moreover, all of us are guilty of stereotypes. Are you familiar with this one? Sales people are depicted as either magically gifted, manipulative or sleezy, shallow, pushy sheisters. All give inaccurate depictions of the profession for young millennials.
Those stereotypes have seeped into our perception of the sales profession as a whole. Great salespeople spend their days driving in revenue to pay everyone’s salary while often being looked down upon or feeling less than. It is insane! These sales people are usually the best relationship builders there are. They learn to serve and provide value to others by invoking trust and protection for all of their clients. They are the ultimate connectors and influencers. Does this sound like a good thing or a bad thing to you?
To clear the air around sales and highlight the importance of sales as a profession, it is important to bust some of the common myths around sales and replace them with a healthy dose of reality. Here are some of the worst myths about sales and then the reality of why these skills are sorely being overlooked by the education system, Universities, Colleges, Graduate Programs, and the Workplace.
Myth #1: Sales is… icky and inauthentic…
There is a stigma around sales that you don’t find being attached to other professions. We describe people who seem sleazy as being like a “used car salesmen.” We describe poorly executed sales tactics as ones that a “door-to-door salesman” would use. Even the word “sales” is seen as a dirty word, often replaced in org charts by euphemisms like “account managers” and “client advisors.” In reality, it’s crucial for businesses to develop, build relationships with, and close lifetime customers to be able to operate!
THE TRUTH:
Sales is critical to the lifeblood of every business. That should be a no brainer.
The difference in 2018 is that consumers are much more savvy and informed than they used to be. Those old, blunt, aggressive sales tactics of the old days simply don’t work anymore. We need authenticity.
Sales today isn’t about tricking old ladies to buy shoddy vacuum cleaners. All sales professionals have become the chief storytellers for their companies. Their job isn’t to convince or trick people into purchasing their product. Their job is to use their relationship powers of trust, dedication, and service to forge organic, genuine relationships with the types of people who could really benefit from their product or service. That is about providing real value in a way that serves the audience. Imagine that! And it works! I 100% guarantee it.
That distinction is important. Anyone can try to pressure and trick consumers into short-term sales numbers. But that approach to sales is so 1960. To be a truly effective salesperson in 2018 you are required to be a special and gifted person; one who can both connect with consumers and also build relationships and communities around their product or service. More particularly, any professional, whether it’s a doctor, lawyer, accountant, consultant, server at a restaurant, or a clerk at a store, needs to be able to sell and build relationships with anyone. The skill of relationship building and story-telling applies to anyone selling a service or a product. We all are involved in acquiring customers or sales. However, my thesis is that it’s not really “selling” that’s important, it’s that building relationships is. How do we shift mindset to use relationship development skills for good and not the evil of the perceived used car sales person or ambulance chaser attorney. Relationship Based Selling
Those special few who can build relationships well are the masters of the universe (and their communities and businesses). Not limited by age, gender, color, or religion these influencers or “sales people” are the most coveted by companies and entrepreneurs alike.
Myth #2: The Customers Come On Their Own
For some reason, sales or relationship development is misunderstood and many times is often seen as an afterthought. In reality, getting folks to buy services or products from you is an art.
Business leaders sometimes seem to believe that either their services (themselves) or their product is so uniquely attractive that selling it will be the easy part. Their product is so great that as soon as consumers see it, they will come rushing to buy! Recently at a workshop I was asked if it is different now than in the past and whether we can expect our phone to just ring and be an order taker. Again, really? Don’t you know the answer to that question? Even Google has sales people.
THE TRUTH:
Consumers clambering for a new products and services rarely happens without an effective sales/relationship development team operating in the background.
The truth is, sales today is incredibly complicated because of the speed of the world, technology, and accessibility which creates real competition from anywhere. For innovative products and services consumers need to understand why they need the product in the first place and then trust who and where they will get it from. For less innovative products, there is likely already fierce competition and plenty of noise that needs to be cut through. And there have never been more people, products, and services in every market vying for consumer’s attention, all day long through just about every mode, right to your mobile device and all.
It is a unique person who has the storytelling ability mentioned in Myth #1, with the analytic and data-driven approach to crack the code of a complicated world. Those people are difficult to find. To land sales superstars, businesses must make a serious, but necessary, investment in teaching relationship building skills!
Companies that skimp on an investment in relationship building “sales” skills are dooming their business from the beginning. You need to teach these skills to employees for customer engagement. It works and it will be the most coveted skill of the new world operated mostly by software, technology and robots. Relationship skills will set real leaders apart!
Myth #3: People Either Have Sales Skills Or They Don’t
Unlike other areas of business, business leaders seem to think people either have an innate ability to sell or they don’t. Depictions of the uniquely talented sales person who can work wonders with only a wink and a smile has penetrated deep into our culture.
Because of this, salespeople are often asked to drive in revenue without the proper tools and resources. If they succeed, they have the magic sales “it” factor. And if they fail? They just don’t have “it” to make it in sales.
THE TRUTH:
The truth is some of that is bull*&^%. It’s true that certain people may be more charismatic or extroverted than others and this can help them (though it can hurt them as much as help them). However, sales or relationship development is a skill that is acquired, crafted, and sharpened through years of practice and experience. There is no magic here: people need the time, tools, and opportunities to hone their skills. Without that support (the support provided to other areas of the business), relationships will die out and sales will flounder. Without sales, so will the business.
Myth #4: Sales is Easy and for the Dumb Folks
When the top 10 lists are released predicting the best and signature careers of the future, they often name data analysts, engineers, developers, coders, technologists, and software geniuses. Nonetheless, as all this technology overwhelms us, it is clear that there will also be a huge need for great service businesses and professionals, as well managers and leaders for all these tech workers. Nonetheless, why do we often think that the sales profession is for the non-technical folks that are not that smart? You’ve heard the old saying someone who has a great personality, so they should probably go into sales, and usually it is not a compliment. It translates to their not smart enough for all the other “technical or hard” stuff, but are good with people.
THE TRUTH:
My experience has demonstrated that the most successful people are great with people because, well, people are customers and people are employees. In fact, the best leaders understand how to build relationships at their core. They understand their audience and how to create trust with the different aspects of stakeholders they encounter. The reason being is people buy from, follow, marry, bond with, give to, create with, and spend time with people they like and trust. Dale Carnegie said it in 1936, and he still remains correct. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In fact Josh Bersin’s predictions for 2018 will be a throwback to “soft skills” ruling the workplace and relationship building techniques being the number one area to improve engagement in the workplace.
In summary, the real deal truth is that the generations comprising those under 37, Digital Natives, Next Gen Leaders, Gen Z, Milillennials they will, no matter how described, understand this and execute it better than any generations yet. They are smart, real, authentic, and bold enough to challenge and they will make America whole. So what’s standing in the way of us learning how to sell/build relationships and learning that building relationships is the number one life/work skill to becoming a true card carrying salesperson? You are. So get out of your own way and learn how to build relationships and kick ass at sales. At launchbox we are on mission to spread that gospel and teach those skills: knowing how to build relationships is the number one life/work skill to have and it also means you understand the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated, because it ain’t about you, it’s about the value you provide to others and the impact you make happen.
We challenge the workplace to solve how to mentor, teach, and live their culture by that rule and make everyone proud of being a salesperson and any other position as long as they live focusing on building relationships..
