When people think of salespeople, they tend to picture one of the following stereotypes:
A boring stiff painstakingly organizing their desk to kill time, a con artist wringing their hands as they devise better ways to swindle, or a struggling entrepreneur trying to sell something nobody wants.
Like most stereotypes, there is some level of accuracy to these examples but in truth, they are mostly based on assumptions. There are many misconceptions about sales and being a salesperson. By understanding and clearing up these misconceptions, you can get a better idea what the life of a salesperson is like. Read on to learn the most common misconceptions about a career in sales:
Sales is Self-Serving and Predatory
The first thing that a person thinks of when we think of sales is usually someone trying to sell us something we do not want or if we do want it, there is always a downside that we are not aware of. While there are some salespeople who are incredibly pushy hard sellers who are not willing to take “no” for an answer and there are some con artists who just want your money, we think of them that way because they are the stories that stand out.
Human psychology has an annoying aspect to it called a negativity bias whereby our negative experiences are twice as memorable and powerful than our positive ones. We will often remember one insult far more than a hundred compliments for instance. So when we have a bad experience with a salesperson, we remember it more. Because of that negativity bias, we tend to filter out the positive experiences we have had with them. Those working in retail, an online sales helper, someone running a restaurant, all of these are sales people that most people we experience in our day to day, most of which we have positive experiences with.
From this, it is important to understand why they are positive experiences, which being that those sales interactions were mutually beneficial. In a positive sales interaction, we get something valuable from the money we spend. While bad salespeople will try to swindle you out of your money, good ones will work with you to provide the best service they can offer you. Instead of trying to manipulate you, they will work with you and listen to your needs in order to best provide you with the best service possible.
Service is the key word here. Sales is supposed to be a service. Understanding this will not only help you see the difference between a good salesperson and a bad one but will also help you to see the profession in a much more positive light.
Sales is Impersonal and Only About Numbers
This mindset is why a lot of bad sales people exist, because they really only care about the money they can make or the position they can get from the numbers they generate. Even otherwise good sales people can fall into this trap, whether they were given bad advice by their peers, or they are simply ignorant of what a salesperson should be doing.
But sales means so much more than just closing a deal, it is also about cultivating a decent relationship with your clientele. Even if you have a good product or service, disinterest in feedback and disregard for their customers beyond what they have to sell will not go unnoticed and may result in their services being dropped if a better alternative arises.
Thus, good sales people will have the customer be involved in the sales process and will do things they may be inconvenient for themselves in order to help the customer. This may require rewards programs, making returns convenient, excellent customer service, whatever will make it more convenient for the customer. Doing this, while possibly making it so not as much money is made, will create a dedicated following that allows the candle to burn for longer. Customer loyalty will sustain a business longer than immediate profit and corner cutting.
Sales is Rigid and Limiting
Many see the profession of sales itself as a limiting profession, however it is far more flexible than people realize. Some people assume that you need a degree in order to get into sales, but that simply is not true. Many of the best sales people do not have their bachelors in anything and were able to work from the bottom up. While it can help in some areas of sales to have a level of higher education, it is not always necessary.
Further, some people assume that you need to have a certain type of personality to be a salesperson. They assume you have to be a logical left-brained type, an extrovert, or a rigid hard ruled busy body. While those types of people do succeed in sales, introverted right-brained types who like to be more spontaneous can also be very successful in sales. Many types of people have become great sales people and have changed sales as we know it with their unique perspective innovating on their, at the time, current models. While each personality quirk will come with their own set of challenges, if you want to be a salesperson, then go for it.
Finally, some people think that sales is a dead-end profession. To which we say: “Absolutely not!” Even within the industry you are already in, salespeople can get promoted to higher positions or look to work for more prestigious companies. Their knowledge of sales can allow them to work in other industries and even allow them to start their own business. Even if they do not want to continue working in sales, knowledge about sales can still be useful in other fields. It all depends on the person and their personal journey.
