I remember my first day in my corporate sales career as clear as yesterday. If, for no other reason than my introduction to the top salesman in the branch of the insurance company I had joined. He was earning over a million bucks a year in new commissions and another million bucks a year in renewal or rollover commissions. He was part of the company’s top 25 producer group that got to attend international events and holidays etc etc. A totally larger than life character!!
He gave a fairly inspiring speech to the new recruits and told us we could get whatever we wanted in life if we committed to it.
One thing sticks out vividly though.
“If it moves, sell it something – if it doesn’t, kick it till it does and then … sell it something!!” – thunderous applause!! We all bought into the dream immediately.
It was the early 90’s and “Closing Techniques” (more tantamount to manipulation and intimidation tactics) was the order of the day. Prospects that didn’t buy were “stupid” at best and massive swearwords at worst. Scant respect was paid to …. Respect!!
Over the next decade 1 or 2 of the new recruits built successful sales practices of their own. 3 were prosecuted for fraudulent business practices and our top producer disappeared from the scene as details began to emerge of 1000’s of “savings or investment” policies being sold (which needed no medicals and were accepted within a couple of days) which the clients believed were Life Cover policies (which would’ve needed medicals and would take much longer to get “on the books!!” )
I spent most of the decade feeling that I needed to make excuses for the fact that I was an insurance salesperson as it appeared that trust was NOT what we were known for. The industry had become so bad that a government regulatory body was set up to protect the clients from unscrupulous peddlers!!
The general consensus amongst the population was that morals, ethics and respect could not co-exist with goals, company targets and opportunities for massive commissions. This was only re-enforced as I began my journey into sales training, when, to this day, many people feel almost embarrassed to be called “SALESPEOPLE” because of the stigma associated with it!!
Irrespective of whether we called it pressure selling, informational selling, educational selling, relational selling, consultative selling or “partnering” – it appears that there’s still precious little admiration for salespeople because the perception is that were swindlers.
And so, has the discussion been reduced to either or…. Either large sales and commissions OR ethical, moral and values-based business??
Without trying to put “oil-on-the-water” I believe that the time is so right for BOTH … AND!! Both massively successful sales and commissions numbers AS WELL AS ethically sound business practices. I believe that a careful and deliberate focus on both will also result in the overall perception of sales professionals beginning to shift towards trust, respect and value.
Sales is BOTH science AND art. It’s also BOTH Heart AND Soul!! To reduce it purely to a “numbers” game ONLY, will immediately dilute it to something devoid of values, ethics and morals and while salespeople will continue to be tarnished as untrustworthy, it’s ultimately the CLIENT that loses.
Wanting to grow your sales ethically where the real winner is your client??
It’s time for you to check out the 4 Pillars of Sales Program. In it you will find all you need to learn to do both significant sales and build a successful business practice, while also building on a foundation of strong morals, ethics and deep respect for your clients.
You can do BOTH, AND!
Go for it!
