While I have briefly touched upon this topic in one of my previous blogs too but seeing some of the persistent questions I get from the younger generations I felt that a separate blog on this topic is warranted. If you’ve been following my blogs, or even better, know me personally, you are well aware that there are things in life that I do not compromise on. Being ethical and fair are among the top most in that list. But then I’m in sales too, so isn’t that a dichotomy?
To answer this question, let’s ask another one. What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘salesperson’? Barring a few, most of you reading this blog would be thinking of that ‘pesky’ person on the phone, or your door, or on the street pestering you to buy a product you are not interested in. And I don’t blame you for it. For quite a while I had the same picture in my mind, so when I was offered to join the sales team in my company in my 20s, I was quite hesitant, because then I would be putting myself into the category of the people that I used to avoid. A simple exercise to prove this point: Get on Google (www.google.com) Quora (www.quora.com) and type the key words ‘Sales people’ and ‘hate’ and you’ll see so many topics discussing the exact question we are talking about here.
So how do you go beyond this thought and join one of the most rewarding professions? To put it simply, you got to take a leap of faith. It’s fairly clear by now, that this idea of salespeople being ‘pesky’ is not going to vanish overnight. While there are a lot of people I know who are genuine and good sales folks, the reality is that a lot of people we interact in our day to day lives are people we won’t spend more than a minute with. It might be too much to think of a utopian world where this is not the case, but don’t let that come in the way of your careers. Having been in the sales world for more than a decade, I can tell you with full authority that it’s that profession where you get to wear a lot of different hats, be creative in your pursuits, exert a certain amount of power and get things done, Is there any other reason? Most CXO level positions are held by professionals which have had some stint in sales.
I’m sure a lot of you are wondering, ‘but how do I avoid getting into the rut of those sales folks who are disliked’. And I’ll tell you, the easiest way to do that is to ‘Think like your customer’. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and approach them in a way you’d like to be approached. I know that’s simplifying things a little too much, and you’ll still have rejections, not just a few but a lot. That’s a topic that will need a lot many blogs, but the goal of these blogs is not bog you down with too many concepts, instead it is to give you something that you can actually use in your profession without having to remember a lot of things before doing them.
Having said that, there will be a lot of times where you’ll want to give in to your temptation and just do what you desist. And these circumstances will come quite early in your career, where your peers or maybe even your supervisor will encourage you to ‘ride with the tide’. There will be times where you’ll think of putting your ethics aside to make a quick sale, or agree to a deal which gives you instant reward. It is quite easy to get sucked into the rabid hole of making a quick buck, but in the long run it can be quite detrimental not just monetarily but emotionally too. So whenever you are faced with such a scenario, remember the statement ‘Principles are the toughest to follow during adversity’. When everything is rosy and nice, it’s pretty easy to follow your ethics and values, but it’s most important to keep to them when the odds are against you, and that’s why they are called ‘principles’.
But isn’t being a sales person mean that you be creative and get things done. Absolutely! And that’s why sales people are among the highest paid in the industry. But do remember that there is a distinction in getting things done and getting things done ethically. If you want to be successful in sales in the long run, you have to be trustworthy and that’ll poise you to not just be great salesperson but an admirable human being too.
