It’s painful to write this post, because I’m calling out a major issue that I see in the sales community but really in society, in general. If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, you’ve had to put up with your share of people saying how they can’t trust salespeople. You probably hear things like, “they’re always trying to sell you something you don’t want,” and many variations of that line.
Sales is Not a Job, Sales Is a Lifestyle:
You can’t control what anyone else does. You can only control what you do, so you want to ensure everything you do is a positive reflection of the sales community; therefore, helping your reputation. Recently on LinkedIn, there have been discussions about how cursing can help you better connect with a customer. Excuse me, did I hear that right? Cursing helps you connect better with a customer? The argument is if everyone swears and if the customer swears, then it’s perfectly ok for you to swear. NO! That’s not right! And I don’t care what a prospect says, I’m not going to mimic them. If it’s your job to imitate a prospect, does that mean that if they jump off a bridge you’re supposed to follow them off the bridge?
Integrity matters, and it’s our duty to always take the higher road. Jumping in the pig slop of society is not going to help your integrity or do anything to elevate the sales profession. Regardless of what a customer does or does not do, you cannot allow yourself to do anything that lowers your integrity.
Now you’re probably asking where authenticity comes into play. If you normally swear, then by swearing on a sales call, you’re being authentic. The words you speak are a reflection of how you think, and how you think is a reflection of your heart. Swearing is an outward indication of what’s going on on the inside. Think about that the next time you’re sitting down to have conversation with a CEO ready to close the biggest deal of your life. Think about it the next time you’re sitting down with your 5-year old teaching them not to beat up their younger sibling. Think about it the next time you’re on the phone with an airline desperately trying to find a new connection after bad weather cancels your flight.
Integrity matters! Integrity and respect open more doors and create more opportunities than you realize.This means you need to take the high road not just some of the time but all the time.
So, I can’t control what you do. I can only control what I do. My constant objective is to take the high road, and I want to ask for your support. If you ever see me not seeking the high road, please call me out immediately. All of us are part of the sales community. It’s our mission to elevate sales as a noble profession, and it starts with you and me. The sales community is comprised of millions of salespeople, each with a different reputation. Will you join me striving to rise up in our respective reputations?
I’m pleased to announce my next book, A Mind For Sales releases on March 31. It’s full of ideas about what you can do to become a sales leader and on fire for helping others. In the coming weeks, I’ll share more about the book. Pre-order now and get Amazon’s low-price guarantee.
Copyright 2020, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result
