It is unbelievable that so many people think that they can sell. Selling like any other profession requires tenacity, patience and professionalism. Suggesting that anyone can sell is similar to saying anyone can be a surgeon, fly a plane or become an Olympic champion.
Everyone has a certain set of innate qualities that allows them to excel at craft. And similar to any profession there are those that have these skills for selling and some that don’t. This is the reason why so many sales people fail and why so many companies fail to make revenue targets. When there is a common belief that the average Joe can sell there is a failure to understand strategy.
This is not to say that business people cannot be taught skills to assist them. However herein lies another issue; many organizations today have stopped paying for personal development and many sales people do not believe they should pay for sales training. This is not only true it is plain old stupid. Selling professionals that fail to invest in themselves should never question their limitations. Odd, because many will invest in sporting lessons before they pay for business advice.
In addition, there is a high attrition and failure rate in selling because selling professionals are unprepared, lack proper business intelligence research and most importantly methodology. These are paramount to the profession. When skills lack, failure is high.
Business professionals must all invest time and energy in selling methods and strategy. When proper research, strategy and planning exists there is a major difference in surviving and thriving and that is money in the bank!
© 2012. Drew Stevens PhD. All rights reserved.
