re: Are people in sales dead inside?

If what they're selling is the best or the best value, it's great. The ones selling what they know is beatable are dead inside.

quote:

---

Worked in sales for 3 years. Fake happy was constantly pushed. Made six figures each year and earned top numbers but I’d never go back. I was miserable. Drinking every single night. I make much much less now and I also work a shifty job but I’d never go back to sales.

---

I held a six figure sales job for a Fortune 100 company and hated every damn minute of it. I'm in a software support job now where people call me. I make a little more than half what I was making, but I'm WAY happier. I'll have an opportunity to get back to six figures, but it'll take a while and require some more education/experience.

quote:

---

Those who can....do

Those who can't....teach

---

FIFY

quote:

---

Those who can't.... teach

---

And there is scarcely a profession around that requires more selling than teaching.

If you look at it as sales and like you have to get over on someone, yeah it would suck. The best "sales people" listen to what others are telling them and give honest recommendations. It's not a sale at that point if it makes sense for the client. As a salesperson you also have to be honest and admit when you logically have nothing that makes sense for the prospect/client and walk away from them.

Sales isn't a hard gig if you're honest and up front about what you do and have the client's best interest in mind.

quote:

---

They always seem to be miserable douchebags or the over the top fake happy types.

---

I deal with sales people all the time. I don’t get the fake happy vibe you are taking about from the sales folks I deal with. But I’m in O&G and I deal with construction contractor sales, equipment sales, software sales, etc., etc. I need these people to execute successful projects. If I meet a new sales person and they are selling something I don’t need I tell them up front. I think they appreciate that so they are not wasting time and can move on to other potential customers that may have a need for their services or products.

quote:

---

DiamondDog

---

quote:

---

his sounds sad but I never really respected many I’ve met in sales. I’ve dealt with thousands of vendors in a wide range of industries.

I think what I respected most was technical competency. I seemed to always gravitate towards working with those I knew had some credibility with the industry.

---

I totally understand technical proficiency as a value-added aspect to my value proposition for my clients.I'm excellent at what I do mainly because I am a hard worker and I am willing to both admit and learn what I don't know. That comes across in my current work product and the testimonials I receive from it. I don't sell. My reputation sells for me at this point in my career.

But not everyone is a service tech or mechanic before they go into car sales. You don't start as an Underwriter before you become a mortgage loan officer. In Construction and Engineering, there are a litany of folks in BizDev whose idea of boots are the Chelsea High-Top Leather ones they got from the Boutique last week.

Am I saying that there aren't any folk who used to estimate or do PM work who are in sales now? Or that aren't actual PE's themselves who are selling or in BizDev now? Of course not. That gives them an added edge when they speak the language. But technical proficiency is not a necessity in sales. To be honest-and this sounds just as sad as your admission-your respect is not necessary to excel in sales, either.

I can deal with disrespect. The correctly trained salesperson is used to hearing no's in any number of elaborate, exotic types of delivery besides just a dialtone or an abrupt send off. Good Salespeople aren't dead inside. They just know that hearing no a massive amount of times more often than yes is what it takes to be successful.

Hitting in Major League Baseball is the closest approximation I can provide as an analogy. If you play 10-15 years and fail 70% of the time, you're going into the HOF. If that much failure scared them off, then what about the thousands of Big Leaguers who drift in the .200's most of their career, only flirting with that level of success here or there or for a few years max.

In my heyday of the Sub-Prime Mortgage Biz, I wanted to Fail-WANTED to, mind you-at least 90% of the time each month. If I could average that over 12 months, I'd make six figures. This is because our Marketing Department and our Payroll Department was completely transparent with their formulas on how much $ they spent, how much marketing was done, how many times that generated my phone ringing, and how many of those calls my coworkers took versus how much money they made.

The math always made sense. If I took 100 calls, and I heard 90 No's, I was going to make money. A lot of people can't hack it. They can't do it. But it's fairly simple if you trust your management and your methods.

Sounds crazy. But numbers don't lie. It's not being dead inside. It's knowing that all those No's lead to success. Just a matter of retraining your brain.

quote:

---

know a guy "in sales" although i dont' know wtf he sells, somethign with technology or something. That guy gets to travel all over, play fancy golf courses, take clients to vegas, it really seems like the guy is just paid to party professionally with potential clients and get paid 6 figures for it. I can assure you he isnt' dead inside.

---

That’s “account based marketing” more so than sales. The show Mad Men showed what this life is like. As Roger Sterling said, “Big accounts require a golf-and-dining offensive.”

How would my interaction with other salespeople be different as a woman? As in you think my male counterparts treat me with authenticity and kindness but not others? Other sales professionals I’ve been fortunate enough to work with are amazing people. Not all of them; but I would say 75% of those I’ve worked with are really good people.

By the way, my femaleness doesn’t help get me in the door with other females, I know that for a fact :) I doubt it hurts with my male surgeons but they’re really only talking to me because I have something that helps them. If I didn’t, I would get the door slammed.