Can we unlearn sales?
Let’s be honest: sales isn’t renowned for its good habits. Sounding “sales-y” isn’t synonymous with being delightful. We have a perception problem. It’s a problem with deep roots.
From the Wolf of Wall Street to Glenngary Glenn Ross to Death of a Salesman, the industry isn’t exactly revered. Before I explore the unfair reputation of sales, I suppose I have to ask a question: is it unfair?
Honestly, I don’t believe so. The toxicity of the industry hasn’t been conjured from nothing. The distrust buyers have for the sales industry was forged by a lot of learning “the hard way.” If character is who we are when no one is watching, then I’m not sure the world would think any better of our industry if they heard every water cooler conversation or 1-on-1 that takes place when no one is watching.
Sales today doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We are the continuation of an industrial legacy that runs through department stores, assembly lines, Cutco knives, and copiers. Every sales methodology in place today is an iteration on a methodology that came before it. There’s no challenger selling without SPIN selling without solution selling. We continue to build on the same foundation. Are we really applying critical thought when we quote Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar for the millionth time?
Our foundation was built on the wrong ground. It was built on the grounds of persuasion and influence instead of the ground of humans reaching to one another and thriving together. Our unstable ground manifests today as toxicity and tactics, and the result is plunging success rates for buyer and seller alike.
Studies show that buyers are increasingly gravitating toward self-service experiences, even when they decrease the likelihood of success.
Have you ever eaten a meal and become ill? And just the smell of that meal makes you sick? Even the best intentions, when seasoned with sales, smell suspicious, inauthentic, and stomach-churning.
We need to orient around a new foundation, not selling me a pen, not telling me who coffee is for. We need a fundamental truth that can change the way we work and live together. That truth is abundance.
Unlearning sales means unlearning scarcity.
It means learning that we truly are better together. In 1799, Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations and established the underlying law of economics: trade is always beneficial. There is limitless opportunity for us to unlock and exchange new efficiencies that make us better together.
In other words, the truth is on our side! Sales is the realization of an economic fact. The only way we fail to succeed in trade is for us to fall into distrust and stop working together. After decades of untrustworthiness, I fear the industry is at that intersection today. Build vs. buy is increasingly a question of whether or not it’s worth it to deal with sales.
As sellers, we have the opportunity to create value. We aren’t here to split up pies. We aren’t here with an offer that expires at midnight. We are here to unabashedly create a more valuable world together.
Forget being a seller. Be a creator. Be a human. Be abundant.
