Tales of a Salesperson

There are multiple ways to act while being a salesperson. I generally like to break it down into two categories- dishonest and honest.

While I was in college, I remember sitting in an economics class listening to my professor discuss different paths a business major could venture onto.  

At times in my sales’ career, I was guilty of lowering the standards I have today. Because, it’s only sales, right? Time to make a profit, not care if it is honest or not.

Have you ever thought that you are selling your soul with every transaction-if it is something that you do not feel honest about selling?

I remember ‘selling my soul,’ pushing credit card applications while working in retail. They had a young seventeen-year-old entering information to determine if someone could open a credit card with the company. What the actual hell?

Yes- seventeen is close to being old enough to buy lottery tickets and one is paying taxes by that time, but truly, if one thinks how ridiculous that is…  

I barely understood how taxes worked at that point. I barely knew how expensive bills could get. And, what the heck was an APR?

As I got into college and started taking business classes, the guilt and remorse set it. I was working at a different location at the time and I all of a sudden, I went from the top performer to missing my minimum quota some months.

Except even if I made quota: it was not enough, they kept wanting more and more. Eventually for other reasons, I left that job. I was relieved that I no longer had to feel like I was a part of the problem.

I remember getting a note from a random consumer. It said some vulgar things but ultimately, it told me I was selling my soul working at the place I was working at the time. It made me laugh at first. But then as time went on, this ‘crazy person,’ started making a point.

I started reading between the lines and writing the story the note did not say. I kept that note in my desk drawer because it reminded me to stay honest. It reminded me that I did not belong there and I needed to realign.

So, when it comes to pushing the product or service you are behind- what is its purpose? Does it actually help in some way? Does it solve a problem?

The worse feeling is when you have to stand behind a product/service and you see absolutely no value in it whatsoever. Or- there is perceived value.

Typically, perceived value is that of the customer. But, I am coming at this from the business side. What if the business/brand and its employees get into it so deep, that they start missing the mark of actually helping people?

What happens if the record broke long ago, but it keeps rotating? Is it too late to dig themselves out of their version of the perceived value they are creating for themselves to believe?

Ask yourself this, are the products or services you are behind shine a positive light, or are they detrimental in some way? Do you have an actual voice anymore? Or are you being scripted to the point you do not even know what you are selling?

There is only one person you need to ‘sell’ in the room- yourself. You need to be able to believe in the product/service you are selling because if you don’t- no one will.