Teenage Lesson For Salespeople

Here’s an entertaining little facebook meme I got introduced to recently.

Teenagers, hey. They mope around all day, lazy, ungrateful and [insert your own words here for the total opposite of driven, dynamic and dutiful]…

Yet when I was a teen I was wonderful. You were too, right?

Such injustice!

Ahem…

Anyway (and after surfing the web to find that this latest open letter was possibly first written way back in 1959) I couldn’t help be struck by the similarities of this stereotypical errant teenager with the under-performing sales rep…

Always we hear the plaintive cry of the below-target rep. We’re too expensive!  The product’s not right! There are no leads!

The answer is, MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN!

Discuss the problems you made go away. Measure this impact. Document the glory. Craft a testimonial, talk to your customer’s supplier, talk to your customer’s customer. Pinpoint your future clients, get permission to contact them regularly, engage them in a genuine two-way manner.

Help a client, your R&D or Production, the industry body, the user group. Visit all customers, assist Customer Service, study your suspects. And then when you are through – and not too tired – make a phone call and have a conversation.

Your sales manager does not owe you ready-made done-deals. Your marketing department or production team do not owe you never-ending incoming enquiries.

The world does not owe you a living…You owe the world something.

You owe it your time and your energy and your talents so that no one will be plagued by the problem you resolve or losing time and cash or not making anything of a missed opportunity again.

Grow up; quit being a crybaby. Get out of your dream world and develop a backbone, not a wishbone, and start acting like a proper salesperson.

You’re supposed to be mature enough to accept some of the responsibility like others have carried for years.

You may have a phone line, desk, expense account, the wisdom around you of others that have seen and done it all before. You can call on resource that will make the difference. Someone, somewhere, possibly closer than you think, wants you to help you succeed, because your success fuels their success.

But now, you have no right to expect customers, bosses or partners to bow to every whim and fancy just because selfish ego instead of common sense dominates your personality, thinking and request.

For yourself, and for those around you, grow up and get selling!

…Thank you, Judge Philip B. Gilliam of Denver, America!