Former Community – We Moved

🆕 Coached community here, for posts & feedback public community here.

ForumPublic Forum: Power DynamicsSales Careers and Value Takers

Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Sales Careers and Value Takers

#1 · January 9, 2021, 4:30 am

I've noticed that in sales, most people have a dog eat dog mentality. I came into my sales career not believing that, but after a while, I became really disillusioned because I saw how people of all levels in the organization were really just value takers. It made me lose faith in humanity a bit, and it's taken some time for me to begin to see that perhaps I was just in the wrong environment for meeting people with a collaborative mindset. What are your thoughts on people in value-taking-oriented careers?

#2 · January 9, 2021, 4:24 pm

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on January 9, 2021, 4:24 pm
Yeah, I've personally noticed the same.
Due disclaimer, of course, it's a tendency, so exceptions abound, and I'm pretty sure there are plenty of great sales teams with mostly ethical and values-driven folks.
Highly driven people often go into sales as a way of "making lots of money, quick", and when your high drive is not equally matched by high ethics and values, then it's easy to look for the shortcut.
I think the issue is compounded by the fact that some founders or some head of departments sometimes attribute traits that they think lead to sales success, but that do not necessarily do instead, including:
Aggression
Doggedness
Machiavellianism
High extroversion
Talking a lot
Talking loud
Those traits can help in the right doses.
And a big mouth, high extrovert will most likely sell more than a very introverted one.
Yes, some studies show ambiverts perform better than highly extroverts/big talkers, which makes sense.
But since many still think that the more of those above traits you have, the more you will sell, they keep hiring people who seem .
In most people's minds there is still this association between hard-charging, loud-speaking salesman, and good sales result.
They hear a guy like Trump and they think "salesman" and "success". But then forget that Trump also resoundingly lost the re-election, in good part, for selling too hard, and for selling lies.
MY EXPERIENCE
I remember once there was one sales colleague yelling -literally yelling- on the phone that he was going to make the prospect a deal he couldn't refuse, he was going to beat his current interests rates, and that we were going to be so much better for him.
He kept yelling:
Just give me a number and I'll beat it
The prospect was saying he was happy with his bank, and he kept yelling that phrase.
It was funny, in a way, and I thought it was remarkable.
But there was a big difference between me, and most others around.
Most others around thought that was the best salescall ever (that we never even got close to winning the account never even entered people's assessment of effectiveness).
Instead, I thought there was no way he was going to win the customer because we could NOT beat the rates he currently had (we served underbanked customers, the simple fact he was with a bank meant he was not a good prospect for us).
So it was a lot of noise for nothing at best, or a lot of noise coming at the cost of his own reputation (having to renege his own word and lose the customer's trust and respect later down the line).
As a matter of fact, since our value added was not the interest rate, that was the wrong way of positioning our services.
But to most people around, including the founders of the business, he was the best sales guy ever.
And what people think does matter.
In businesses that have poor metrics, reputation sometimes matter more than actual results -especially long term ones, since reputation and turst can cost in the short-term, but pay off in the long term-.

Yeah, I've personally noticed the same.

Due disclaimer, of course, it's a tendency, so exceptions abound, and I'm pretty sure there are plenty of great sales teams with mostly ethical and values-driven folks.

Highly driven people often go into sales as a way of "making lots of money, quick", and when your high drive is not equally matched by high ethics and values, then it's easy to look for the shortcut.

I think the issue is compounded by the fact that some founders or some head of departments sometimes attribute traits that they think lead to sales success, but that do not necessarily do instead, including:

Aggression
Doggedness
Machiavellianism
High extroversion
Talking a lot
Talking loud

Those traits can help in the right doses.
And a big mouth, high extrovert will most likely sell more than a very introverted one.
Yes, some studies show ambiverts perform better than highly extroverts/big talkers, which makes sense.

But since many still think that the more of those above traits you have, the more you will sell, they keep hiring people who seem .

In most people's minds there is still this association between hard-charging, loud-speaking salesman, and good sales result.
They hear a guy like Trump and they think "salesman" and "success". But then forget that Trump also resoundingly lost the re-election, in good part, for selling too hard, and for selling lies.

MY EXPERIENCE

I remember once there was one sales colleague yelling -literally yelling- on the phone that he was going to make the prospect a deal he couldn't refuse, he was going to beat his current interests rates, and that we were going to be so much better for him.
He kept yelling:

Just give me a number and I'll beat it

The prospect was saying he was happy with his bank, and he kept yelling that phrase.

It was funny, in a way, and I thought it was remarkable.
But there was a big difference between me, and most others around.

Most others around thought that was the best salescall ever (that we never even got close to winning the account never even entered people's assessment of effectiveness).

Instead, I thought there was no way he was going to win the customer because we could NOT beat the rates he currently had (we served underbanked customers, the simple fact he was with a bank meant he was not a good prospect for us).
So it was a lot of noise for nothing at best, or a lot of noise coming at the cost of his own reputation (having to renege his own word and lose the customer's trust and respect later down the line).
As a matter of fact, since our value added was not the interest rate, that was the wrong way of positioning our services.

But to most people around, including the founders of the business, he was the best sales guy ever.

And what people think does matter.
In businesses that have poor metrics, reputation sometimes matter more than actual results -especially long term ones, since reputation and turst can cost in the short-term, but pay off in the long term-.

Community, new content and Confidence University now available here.