‘Does everyone live by selling something?’

My desire to seek answers to this question was ignited back in the late 1980’s when I came across the quote ‘Everyone lives by selling something’.  The quote was coined by Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet, travel writer and author of ‘Treasure Island’, in the late 1880’s some 100 years earlier.

It is interesting to note that Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. He was also greatly admired by many authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov and others.  Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson’s popularity and allow him a place in the canon.

Over the last 20 years I have sincerely come to believe that Robert Louis Stevenson is correct in his assumption that ‘Everyone lives by selling something’.  His ability to not be constrained by the prevailing views and paradigms of his time allowed him to see what many of us are coming to realise now.

Whether we call ourselves a salesperson or not, if we have an idea, product, service, skill, capability, talent, or opportunity by which we can make a living and others can benefit from, we need to be able to sell.

This means that whatever role we are in, we all need to put ourselves in a position to secure the ongoing custom of customers, members, patients, supporters, peers, students, sponsors, or clients to make a living.    Even internal service providers such as HR and Procurement professionals need to be able to sell and consult in order to fulfill their roles accordingly.

In this complex world, this means that we need to make sure our talents and capabilities are visible to those who need to know about us.  We need to proactively put ourselves in a position to work with others to earn what we are worth on any level, otherwise we at risk of being invisible and losing opportunity.  Good salespeople have always known this, consciously or not.

Yet many people are still confused by the words ‘sell’, ‘selling’, ‘salesperson’, or ‘sales’. In fact when these words are mentioned in polite company, you can see many people visibly recoil at the concept and some even go so far as to object to you even mentioning the concept of selling.

Why?

Because many so called ‘legitimate‘ sales practices we experience as customers are nothing more than manipulation and deceit, aggression and intimidation, or hard sell, pressure tactics.  No wonder so many people shy away from selling as a career or cringe at the thought.  Whether we are conscious of it or not most of us don’t like how selling is being sold to us.   I don’t blame you.

Despite the prevailing paradigms of 20th century ‘old school selling’ tactics and others’ self limiting beliefs, highly successful, effective, ethical sales people have always known the best way to sell is to proactively forging honest and open relationships (of any kind) based on trust, transparency, respect, and doing what they said they would do.  This is their competitive edge.  Their sales approach is more collaborative, integrated, holistic, and enlightened.   The potential for these life skills and attitudes is present intrinsically in almost all of us whether we know it or not.

Now I are not trying to convince people to love selling, or even like it.  However, we want people to recognise the vital role selling plays in our lives today. Without this capability our businesses wither and die.

Yet some people believe it is not their right to put themselves or their ideas forward instead relying on their good work to speak for themselves.  Some think they may be seen as too boastful or self absorbed if they do so.   Others are too frightened to sell and many have never been taught how to sell effectively with confidence, dignity, and grace.

That is why we still see too many good ideas and opportunities go to waste resulting in poor revenue results.  Too many people do not purposefully and proactively put themselves in a position to explore opportunities with others, bring their ideas to the table, create new possibilities or earning what they are worth in the process.

Whether we earn a living from what we do or not, if we hide our talents and capabilities from others and no one knows about us or what we are capable of then how can we be of service and earn what we are worth on any level?

It’s also about being genuine.
In this increasingly networked world we all have the opportunity to connect  with others all the time – in short we are selling ourselves.   However, the way each of us portrays ourselves, our companies, our values and our lives are at risk of being seen as superficial if we do not genuinely communicate, connect and create with others.

If we want to cultivate and sustain genuine, healthy, profitable and viable business relationships with our clients, partners, suppliers or peers where a fair exchange of value is achieved then we, our business and our people need to go out to the market place and put ourselves in a position to work proactively with people and help them and ourselves achieve our collective business goals.

This is why I believe Everyone lives by selling something.

Whether you are working as a sales professional, business development manager, lawyer, accountant, engineer, consultant, internal human resources manager, procurement  manager, business, manager, small business owner, team leader, psychologist, a jobseeker, or anyone in contact dependent career, we can all benefit from applying more enlightened, collaborative, worthy, natural sales practices in our daily lives.

I am interested in whether you believe Everyone lives by selling something.  If you would like to have your say we have set up a poll at www.barrett.com.au to take your response to the question ‘do you live by selling something’.

Happy and honourable selling to you all.

As part of my ongoing professional  and personal development I belong to a CEO leadership group where we meet monthly and discuss a whole range of topics to stimulate our thinking and decision making.

Recently we discussed the concept and qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs.  Besides making the obvious comparisons with ourselves as to whether we met the criteria of successful entrepreneurs I found the content translated extremely well into what I and other research is seeing in successful sales people today.

It seemed to me that successful sales people had a lot in common with successful entrepreneurs who are often the main sales people in their own businesses anyway.

I thought we could use this information to help us find and cultivate Entrepreneurial Sales People for our businesses, especially to help we entrepreneurs who need to grow our businesses beyond our own capabilities and personal time constraints.

Here is a summary of my notes:

1.    Successful Entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers note gamblers.

Unlike risk adverse people who avoid stepping outside their comfort zone and trying anything new or gamblers who seem to act before they think and often stake everything on one risky deal, Successful Entrepreneurs and successful sales people will step outside their comfort zone but not too far at first.  They will stretch themselves check for evidence of success and recalculate their actions to try and step out even further.  Good sales people do this with their clients all the time.  They will trial different options and gauge the interest and suitability of these options with their clients.  This is how new products or service emerge.

If you want to test someone’s entrepreneurial tendencies here is one way.  Play the game of Coits.  Ask anyone to try and get all six coits on the stand and see what they will do:

• Conservative, non risk takers will stand right over the top of the stand and not move dropping all six coits on the stand from above.
• Gamblers will stand far away and just throw hoping something will stick.
• Successful Entrepreneurs and successful sales people will take a few steps back throw 2 coits, get them on and then step further back and throw again always checking their accuracy.  If they miss one they will step in a bit throw again get the coit on and then step out again and so on.   They are engaging in self testing and feedback which is why they keep getting better.

2.    Needs
They also found Successful Entrepreneurs have 3 fundamental needs:

• need for achievement
• need for affiliation
• need for power or influence

It was found that the need for achievement was by far the most important, with successful  entrepreneurs marshalling the need for affiliation and power to support their need for achievement. This coincides with the research on successful sales people.

3.    Questioning

Non Entrepreneurs specialise in ‘Social’ Questioning’ which revolves around their need for affiliation and not much else.  Which is why I get annoyed when sales training over emphasises  ‘building rapport’.  You hear it all the time, sales people being told that to build rapport by asking about people about their personal lives, footy teams etc.  This is very old fashioned and not as effective as people think it is.  In fact for many first time client encounters it can be a real turn off for the client.  It often comes across as fake.  You will build more rapport by focusing on what you are really there to do – and that is work with clients priorities and address their issues.

Successful Entrepreneurs and Successful sales people specialise in ‘Opportunity’ Questioning.  Here they are looking for evidence that opportunities exist for them to work on effectively with others.  They are inquiring, curious and ideas oriented.

By looking at these qualities you can see you don’t need to start a business to have entrepreneurial tendencies.  Entrepreneurial qualities, in my opinion, can be applied in many roles, especially in sales roles and more people have them they we maybe recognise.

1. Who in your team, especially your sales team is showing these qualities?
2. How can you and they capitalise on this, especially in these markets?

With the world presently in a major transition we need more people taking calculated risks, being prepared to ask ‘opportunity’ questions and look to achieve great and positive things by marshalling affiliation, influence and power.

Your advocate for selling the right way.

It is well documented that being healthy (physically, emotionally, and mentally) is vital to leading an effective and productive life.

In sales your health is a critical factor to your success.  Many highly successful sales people I meet are self disciplined in all aspects of their life ensuring they are fit, healthy and well trained in their profession.

Having a healthy sales career is underpinned by the individuals healthy life style, and a well managed business which includes good sales support, clear goals and leadership.

I have written before in a previous post Healthy salespeople, healthy sales about the issues associated with poor health and inconsistent sales, especially the ‘boozy’ culture associated with some sales teams and sales cultures.  Sadly this stereo type if often the only one portrayed in the media further perpetuating this type of behaviour.   Yet this is not the behaviour we see in healthy sales people and sales teams.

However another issue we see more often now is overwork, especially with some high achieving sales people and teams.

We Australians are known for working excessive hours and for not taking our quota of annual leave.   This is not a good recipe for ongoing success as I can attest to myself, having burnout a few years ago from over work.

It is very tempting in these challenging times to work longer and longer hours and one could be (almost) forgiven for not taking time off, feeling the need to work more than ever before.

The problem is if you are already overworked and now further distressed by the current business climate then you could be setting yourself up for bigger problems in the future namely your health.

However the issue of overwork is being further exacerbated in some business sectors by excessive cost cutting, which is leaving sales teams under resourced.  A number of sales people are reporting that they are losing the support people from their teams, or worse still being asked to pick up larger and larger territories when sales people leave and are not replaced.

The conscientious ones will try to pick up the slack and put in more hours trying to make up for the lack of resources.  This then leaves them tired and eventually vulnerable to burn out.

One person I met now has to manage over 300 clients, up from 100, with a full service offering in a complex sales environment which they admitted was impossible. This person is a good operator and takes pride in doing a good job but now they cannot deliver to the standards expected and are left feeling overwhelmed, distressed and demotivated.

While I know we may have some sales people who are not and may never pull their weight and need to go, penalising those who are doing their best to keep sales coming by not resourcing them properly is a recipe for sales and business disaster.

Overwork and lack of support are not recipes for a healthy life, a healthy career or a healthy business.

Burn out due to overwork can be an issue for some high performing sales people in the good times, but let’s not make it worse and create a burnout epidemic by cutting vital sales support such as administration, marketing support, etc. or overburdening our sales people because  we feel the pressure of tough times.

The one thing you cannot afford to lose in this climate are your effective sales performers.

In these challenging times it may seem counter intuitive to take time out, however regularly taking time out to rest, relax, exercise, socialize, be with family, have a small holiday, gain perspective are important to our wellbeing.  This coupled with a healthy diet, and being around people with health mindsets and ‘can do’ attitudes are vital to keep us going.   I would encourage you to encourage your sales people to look after themselves.

And you could look after them by providing appropriate support and being realistic in your business expectations.

These approaches are vital to leading a healthy sales career and team.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

I awoke early this morning to the sound of gentle rain falling and found myself immediately praying for more.  This prayer came automatically during one of the most tragic weeks in Victoria’s history with the tragedy of the bush fires in many parts of our state.

As a Victorian I have found myself upping my prayer quotient for rain for some time now, not just for the bush fires but for the many people whose lives are affected by the drought here and elsewhere.  In addition to my prayers, like many families, my family and I have been doing our best to save water and change the size of our carbon foot print.  Yet at times like this one can’t help but feel somewhat helpless and useless.  All I felt I could do under the circumstances was to pray and give money.  And the irony of Australia is that our Queensland cousins have been praying for the rain to stop.  I hope both our prayers come true.

As I lay there that morning thinking about the feelings of helplessness many are feeling in the midst of nature’s power over our collective destiny, it got me thinking about what we can control and what we can’t control and the importance of hope, purposeful action and good news.

It got me thinking about what people do in a time of crisis and how they fight to take back some control and regain their balance, albeit a new balance in many cases.  Witnessing the collective strength, courage, tenacity, compassion and determination of the people directly facing and dealing with the consequences of the fire and floods shows us what we are really made of.   It shows us that despite the grief and suffering we are experiencing we are resilient and determined to begin again.   It shows that people are able to take control and attend to their fellow human beings with kindness, compassion, support and purposeful effort.   It gives many of us hope that we have a shared future, albeit a future that is fundamentally changed forever. It is said that a crisis brings people together and highlights the most amazing qualities in people.

The fire and these human qualities were the key topic at a business leaders forum I am a member of  and attended the other day.  We discussed people’s resilience, determination, courage, creativity and ingenuity to work together and find a new way forward.  We also discussed the importance of giving people hope, clear information, positive news and strong, clear leadership in a time of crisis.

We discussed the fires and the impact on our collective psyche.  This then lead us to discuss more broadly how many people are feeling helpless and somewhat hopeless in the midst of the global financial crisis we find ourselves in now.  The global financial crisis was likened to a fire storm with the bad news still coming.   This association was not meant to detract from or trivialise the bush fires and the terrible consequences for all those directly involved in anyway, however the metaphor of fire and smoke was used to help us think more broadly about the consequences of our actions at all levels during these unprecedented times.

It was stated, among  other things, that the smoke of a fire is usually the most deadly, and many more people die of smoke inhalation rather than from the fire itself.  The ‘smoke,’ in relation to the global financial crisis, was the doom and gloom being spread about the world.  The group felt that the haze of fear and uncertainty which is affecting many in relation to  job losses, financial loss, business closure, family and community breakdowns, etc. is not being properly offset against the creative and positive opportunities for change and learning that also exist in these challenging times.

It was reported that the group had seen some people so distressed they are paralysed by fear and feel unable to see a way forward and take decisive action.  We expressed our concern that this may lead some people doing things that may lead to further grief and turmoil because the ‘smoke’ of fear was choking them.

The media (rightly or wrongly) was singled out by this group as a major culprit for taking a particularly negative stance on offering up a diet of bad news and for not providing a more balanced approach and insight in reporting on constructive, positive, hopeful news stories coming out of these challenging times.  We felt the media could do a lot better in this instance given their influence on our psyche.

Many in the group said they were refusing to watch or read the news now and decided to take a more proactive stand despite the media.  This wasn’t avoidant behavior, they were choosing to clear the smoke and gain a fresh perspective and look at the real evidence at hand.

We discussed that the positives coming out of this financial storm and how this has allowed many people to rethink what they want to do, how they want to really live their lives and run their businesses.  It was commented on that after any fire comes new growth and new opportunity.

We all felt that this financial crisis, as challenging as it is, gives us all the opportunity to create a ‘new’ normal.

We talked about people, businesses and communities, who despite the haze of gloom and doom are not taking this major crisis lying down.  They are looking for signs of growth, for collaboration, for a ‘new normal.  They are bucking the trend of despair and fighting back, dealing with adversity and seeing the world a new.  It is what we as humans do to give us hope.

Our group said we wanted to see more of these constructive, positive stories about what people are actually doing to make the most of their situations represented more in the media.   We want to hear and have broadcasted how people are creating their ‘new’ normal, their ‘new’ ways of doing business and how they are working collaboratively together instead of in competition.  One of the leaders who attended the meeting, mentioned that instead of attacking his competitor in these tough times, he intends to meet with them to discuss how they can work together to survive and begin to thrive again in business.

Other people I am speaking to within the business world are sharing similar stories of opportunity and the creating the ‘new’ normal.

Ironically, the very same media who have been reporting on the financial gloom and doom are looking for good news stories from the fires to give us hope.

What this leadership group wants is for the media to up the reporting on good news business, environmental and community stories where people are creating jobs, looking at ways to secure their future and so on not to just feel good but because they are actually happening and are real.

I must say I was heartened by this discussion, unlike another major business leaders event I attended two weeks ago that seemed to dwell on the negative and was trying get us back to ‘old normal’.

Whether the media responds to our request or not I encourage  everyone in business to go out and meet with your clients, suppliers and partners. I encourage you to meet with your friends and communities.  I encourage us all to listen to and understand each other like we never have before.  Find out how what we each value and what our priorities are and how we can work together to create a more sustainable future and make this best of it despite the prevailing circumstances.  I encourage us to share stories of new opportunities and different types of growth models that don’t just rely on growing bigger and consuming more non renewable resources by selling stuff for stuff sake.

We all agreed that we need to draw upon our resilience, determination, creativity and ingenuity to work together and find a ‘new’ way forward.  Just like we are witnessing at the moment in this time of tragedy.

At this meeting our chairman quoted from Charles Dickens ‘A tale of two cities’ which seemed quite apt in relation to our times and the choices we have to make:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.”

Despite the difficulties we all face we can still pray and act with clear purpose and make the most of what we have and what will become.

And I’ll keep praying for rain here in Victoria and for all those people affected by the fires and floods, for our environment and our communities and keep doing my best to change my ways for a better more sustainable future.

PS Let us know your good news stories and maybe we could start here our good news push here.

The term ‘Relationship Selling’ is often bandied about by sales managers and sales people without properly defining what it really means.I often hear “We are in relationship selling” or “We need relationship sales people” however what I do not hear being asked is:

• What type of relationship are we talking about?
• What type of relationship are we looking for?
• What do we mean by relationship selling anyway?

Relationship selling happens in any place where relationships are important. Thus when a husband and wife are negotiating about something, they will be more successful if they both consider the relationship as well as whatever it is they each want.

Most people’s intentions are to have healthy viable business relationships, but this does not always happen, just like in our personal lives.

And I see many businesses and sales people in trouble because they have set up the wrong types of relationships with their clients to begin with.

If you do not clearly define what you mean by Relationship Selling then you may end up with client relationships like these:

• Abusive relationships
• aggressive clients who bully and intimidate sales people/ suppliers, or the other way round
• Professional Visitor relationships
• Calling in for a chat, coffee, etc. In short being paid to have a social life.
• Master/servant  relationships
• ‘You are here to serve my every need.’ I see this all too often in business banking where some clients take advantage of the ‘over servicing’ of some business bankers using them a free accounting service.  I am sure the accountants won’t be happy with this loss of revenue.  I know the client is happy but is it a healthy relationship in the long run?
• Big brother relationships
• ‘You’ll do as I say or else…”
• Win:lose or lose:win relationships (someone has to lose out)
• Friendships at the expense of profitable business partnerships (see professional visitor)
• Broken promises relationships
• “I’ll get you in here if you give me this…” but it never comes through despite all those promises
• Exploitative or Deceitful relationships
• double dipping or tricking people into something they were not aware of. For instance a course participant on one of our recent sales training programs told of a telco sales person who sold the handset separate to the call plan when in fact the handset was already part of the plan, so the customer paid twice of the handset.  This is fraud and can easily ruin your business’ brand and reputation over night.
• ‘I work for you instead of my company’ relationship
• sales people siding with the client by giving away excessive margins, products, etc. at the expense of the company.  This is actually theft.
• Hostage or Handcuff relationships
• ‘I have to deal with but you really add no value to me or my business and I really resent that.’
• ‘I have to deal with you because my parent company says so.’
• Your payment terms are disregarded by bigger businesses because they only pay at 60+ days (not the 14 or 30 days you agreed to)
• Relationships under pressure
• Sales people having to meet monthly quotas hence they may use more pressured methods than perhaps they would like. This is a hazardous practice, as it may seriously damage an ongoing relationship, putting additional pressure on the hapless sales person who falls into the dangerous chasm.  It amounts to selling stuff to make a quota not build a viable relationship.

And so on.

• Do you have any of these types of relationships in your business?
• What types of relationships are you attracting to your business?
• Are they healthy or not?
• What are they making or costing you?

Some of the relationships mentioned can be particularly relevant for SME’s when dealing with big business where, for instance, your size can be used against you.  I also see sales people in relationship sales roles for big businesses as well as SME’s who over service existing client at the expense of selling and winning in new business thinking this is good relationship selling.  It is not, as it sets up unrealistic expectations and costs too much.

So Relationship Selling needs to be clearly defined or else we are at risk of creating unhealthy, unprofitable relationships.

All relationships change and are continually evolving over time for better or for worse.

I recall a great saying I heard and often refer to which I think gets to the heart of this:

You have friends for a reason, a season, or a life time.

The same is true for business / client relationships too.

First of all consider this:

Buying is a value judgment made in the mind of a person who has the ability to purchase, a genuine need/ want and the capacity to pay.

Selling is understanding that mind set and the accompanying values and priorities, and delivering on expectations through effective communication (such as questioning and listening), ideas generation and collaboration, creative problem solving and relevant solution generation, and gaining commitment to move forward together.

Whether it is business to business or retail to consumer selling, this definition holds true.

Therefore Relationship Selling is an extension of this where the primary objective is the building of long-term viable business relationships with customers from which repeat and/or additional business will flow and a win:win outcome is achieved for both parties whether it is for a for a reason, a season or a life time.

In my research for this piece I also came across an article ‘How to have a healthy relationship’ which, while referring to personal relationships, was quite pertinent to business relationships and in particular Relationship Selling.  It referred to the following steps:

1. Do not expect anyone to be responsible for your happiness
2. Make and keep clear agreements
3. Use communication
4. Approach your relationship as a learning experience
5. Tell the unarguable truth.
6. Do not do anything for your partner if it comes with an expectation of reciprocation.
7. Forgive one another
8. Review your expectations especially attitudes towards money
9. Be Responsible
10. Appreciate yourself and your partner.
11. Admit your mistakes and say sorry.
12. Spend some quality time together

You can find the full article at http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Healthy-Relationship

In addition I would like to add the following tips for sales people and their respective businesses.

Make sure you:

• Clearly define your level of service/products offerings and pricing.
• Know what you are good at and clearly communicate and deliver that.
• Create a network of businesses who are experts in allied fields to you so you can refer your clients to them when a needs arises you cannot fill.
• Learn to say ‘No’.
• Stand up for yourself, just because you are small doesn’t mean you can’t be a professional, well regarded business in your market.
• Don’t take it personally.
• Know the line between friendship and professional business relationships

So in closing I wish you all the very best with all your relationships both personal and professional.  May they be healthy, happy and prosperous for all.

Happy selling.