Sales Cowboy

In planning for a move to a different state all things must be considered, including boring things, like health insurance. Most employers have health insurance as a group plan provided to their employees for a portion of their pay, however, some don’t. Not knowing who I will work for or what their benefits package may or may not be, I must prepare for all possibilities, including paying out of pocket for my own health insurance benefits. As a precaution I went to a website to request a quote for health insurance and then immediately regretted my decision. I was bombarded with an oppressive amount of phone calls from insurance “sales professionals.” So many calls that I started answering the phone with, “Hello, this is Adam, are you calling about health insurance?” Of all the “sales professionals” I “spoke” with I only had an earnest conversation with one, that’s one out of about 25, which is about 4%.

What is “sales professional” and “spoke” in quotations for? Am I one of “those people” who are constantly caught with my 2 fingers ever so slightly bent, eye brows raised, and throwing out obligatory quotes around things like a young gunslinger from the Wild West? No ma’am, no sir, nope, sorry partner, that’s not me. I’m no irrelevant quote finger slinging cowboy. The one guy I actually spoke with, had a genuine conversation with, was an exception of the blood sucking, number chasers I listened to practice scripted monologues. I didn’t really get to speak, thus my use of the quotation marks. The same is true of sales professional, which leads me to the very essence of this writing. Is that really a sales professional? What is sales? What is a sales professional in this new environment? Answering these questions will help sales organizations decided what kind of business they want to run, what type of business they want to retain, and what sales actually is, which all shapes a company culture.

I will NEVER do business with any of the companies that contacted me regarding health insurance. Their sales professionals represented their employers horribly. Insurance is like shoes, paper, homes, or any other product or service. You aren’t really going to twist someone’s arm into doing something; you’ll just create an unhappy customer or even worse, a regretful one. So what is sales then? What are these people trying to do or where are they missing the boat? As a universal principle, everything and everyone has a value. It is our personal experiences and contexts that develop and shape our value systems. I value quality over money or quantity. Some people value low cost over quality. The point is we all have different value systems. As an example I’ll refer to one of my favorite things, shoes. I love shoes, yes, love. I get a high from finding a special pair or a nostalgic pair from my childhood I wasn’t able to get as a lower income family growing up. I now value quality over low cost. I would rather buy one pair of Cole Haan or Allen Edmonds oxfords than 7 pairs of Sketchers. That doesn’t mean Sketchers are bad shoes. That doesn’t mean everyone should buy Cole Haan or Allen Edmonds. That simply means I prefer getting a quality pair of shoes over a reasonably priced one with lesser quality. I’d rather invest upfront, say $650 for those Cambridge Wingtips that will last me 10 years over replacing them each year for a pair of $99.95 Steve Maddens. Mathematically, in my head, it makes sense to spend 650 once every ten years than it would be to spend $99.95 for 10 years, which would come out to $999.50. So to me the value is in quality and longsighted durability.

As sales professionals it is most effective to figure out the value system of the individual you are talking to. I would make that sales pitch to a guy like myself who gets sticker shock over a $650 pair of wingtips because I know he values quality and durability over just the cheapest price. However, if a young guy fresh out of college came into buy shoes and he only had $200 dollars to spend and was only getting the shoes for an interview next week, my approach would be different. As would my sales approach be different to someone who likes to get a bunch of pricing and product details to compare and make a decision once all the data is in front of them. The point here is scripts and pushy salesmanship is a short sighted ideology for companies.

So what is selling then? At its core sales is about product knowledge and relationship management/development. Know what you are representing and be confident that this product or service will sell itself. If you present the product confidently and worry about developing rapport with the other party you can then begin to understand their value system. You can then become something more than a stranger offer or trying to force something down their throat. When you remove price from the equation it becomes more about personal values. When you can stroke someone’s personal value system then you begin to get into elite selling. Elite because you create a relationship where trust is built in and no longer are they purchasing the product or service, they are purchasing you, your company, something that has no competitors.

Sales is more complicated than people like to make it. I understand it’s quick and easy for companies to make things easy, however, sells is about people and people are complicated and complex. A solution to a complex problem cannot be simple and black and white. Why would selling something be then? I think it’s high time we as professionals and businesses begin to re-imagine and redefine the ideology of sales.

What do you think? What do you sell? What are some of your sales experiences, good and bad?