Embrace Sales

Often, I’ve let myself feel down about being a sales rep. I’ve let myself fall into the trap of wishing I had pursued a more dignified or specialized career; one that didn’t have the ups and downs and the “what have you done for me lately?” mentality that comes with sales.

Why?

Sales is a career that doesn’t seem to have a barrier for entry. There’s seldom a license required, college is not a prerequisite; if you can talk and know how to get dressed, you’re in. I have worked with reps that didn’t attend college, could barely write, had trouble reading, were chronically late and didn’t know how to use a single Microsoft Office program. I worked with a woman that wanted me to help her with her computer, because the screen was dark, and after looking at it for ten seconds, I realized that the monitor was turned off.

When you get right down to it, your brain might be your own worst enemy in some sales jobs. If you think about things too much in sales, you’re going to talk yourself out of cold calling and making follow up calls.

So, for whatever reason, you ended up in sales, had some success, formed a life style that required a certain level of income, couldn’t get yourself into management and now you’re stuck working in an industry with a bunch of half wits. And every time some receptionist talks down to you, a prospect
no-shows for an appointment or someone won’t return your call or email; you ask yourself, “What did I do to end up in sales?”

When being in sales gets you down, keep in mind a few things:

• The reason most people are rude and condescending to sales people is that they are too afraid to take a job in sales. They’re sitting around making 35k, struggling to make ends meet. A sales job, that could make all their money troubles go away, is right there for the taking, and they don’t want it. So what do you do when you’re too afraid to try something? You put it down. Just ask broccoli some of the things I’ve said about it in the past.

• All these business owners with the no solicitation signs and the bully temperaments; they wish they had a sales rep that would cold call and be persistent, to sell their products. Heck, most of those guys wish they could afford to hire a good sales rep.

• We live in America, a country and society built on capitalism. Sales people are red blood cells in the country’s capitalistic circulatory system. You want to be a patriot? Go out and sell!

• Maybe we dress up and put gel in our hair, but we’re the bad boys of the business world. And it takes balls to be in sales.(1)

(1) There are a lot of tough sales women, without balls, who do just fine.