Has anyone else noticed this? ‘Sales phobia.’
A contact of mine who runs a business that provides professional training to education, public sector and professional bodies, was telling me that his clients appear to have adopted sales-avoidance strategies. I suspected this was a wind-up until he told me that, for some, their new term for this was ‘Customer Engagement’. Others had replaced sales and selling with the catch-all of ‘Business Development’. I had previously heard of a consultant in the south of England effectively demoting sales by saying it was part of the discipline of ‘Business Strategies’.
Sadly, there may be a simple reason for this; bad experiences of being sold-to and more people are expecting to be given the ‘hard sell’ As a result they do not respect the sales process or people who sell.
Having spent 20 years in field sales and sales management, I have been very aware of the pressure that senior management put onto their sales teams. In the companies I worked for, it was always ‘do whatever it takes to win the business’. In the extreme, one MD said to a colleague of mine ‘if you don’t win the business, don’t bother coming back’! This culture fostered some terrible sales practices, all based on pressure, manipulation and worse.
At the same time, business-to-consumer sales was facing growing and tougher competition and so, instead of offering better service as an enticement to buy, they too adopted pressure selling techniques. We all remember the awful reputations gained by car and double glazing salesmen!
Unfortunately, I believe that, while some improvement has been made, pressure selling is still rife and the sales discipline as a whole has become tarnished by these unethical practices. The culture is also perpetuated by the likes of The Apprentice, and, occasionally, even Dragon’s Den., i.e., if you don’t do what is expected, if you don’t win, you are humiliated and you are out.
When selling, how far would YOU go to protect your income, your standard of living?
I suspect that this continuing culture has caused the name change. Perhaps our own professional bodies should take notice and make solid pronouncements against pressure selling techniques. Perhaps not enough has been done to ‘clean-up’ sales with clearly defined boundaries of what is ethical and what is at least ‘dodgy’. I feel passionately about ethical selling and have flown the flag for some years now, but I too come across very negative attitudes towards selling and sales people in general.
I aim to bring back enjoyment and satisfaction in selling by teaching a clear and clean sales process that is open and understood by all prospects.
In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson; “Everyone lives by selling something”. Often this is just selling ourselves; making a good impression; having a positive impact. If we cannot do this without being devious or manipulating our prospects, then clearly we cannot be trusted and perhaps we deserve the demotion to a sub-discipline.
In short, ethical selling must inherently be more successful, especially in the longer term.
- Pressure selling is less likely to result in repeat business or referrals.
- Building business relationships and selling ethically reduces the need to keep looking for new customers.
- Customers who don’t enjoy buying from you are less likely to come back for more.
- Keeping existing customers AND finding new ones will build a business far quicker than if you constantly have to look for new opportunities because former customers have voted with their feet.
If we don’t all start flying-the-flag for strong, ethical sales, then fewer people will respect it, expectations will remain negative, and we will all become ‘customer engagement’ experts!
Do you have a ‘Sales Phobia’?
Let me ask a different question:
Does the idea of selling cause you to palpate or procrastinate?
Do you fear a prospect rejection, or worry about making a fool of yourself when asking for the business?
If the answer is yes, you may have a sales phobia.
Unfortunately, I fear this is becoming more common. I am doing my best to change business culture to accept that sales can and should be ethical, simple, jargon-free and enjoyable! I achieve this in most cases. However, there is a risk that this phobia is becoming institutionalized. It should be a high profile and honourable profession. Don’t let the gainsayers try and tell you otherwise!
Selling can be even more fun than buying!