Isn’t it funny how different stigma’s and stereotypes are attached to different professions. I am in the sales profession, which has a large number of negative connotations associated with it – however I am in a ‘corporate sales/technical sales role,’ which pushes me up the ‘socially acceptable’ ladder a bit against say a ‘used car salesman’ or ‘real estate agent’ as these professions drip with stereotypes.

The fact of the matter is that the most respected titles in business, General Manager, CEO and Managing Director are the biggest sales professions in the industry – they should be taking any and every opportunity to sell their company. Yet they own the company, have a great ‘title’ and therefore are not seen by society as a sales person.

To put things into perspective, when was the first time you tried to sell? Was it trying to convince your mum to buy you a chocolate bar in a shopping centre? Was it trying to court a girl in high school? Was it trying to convince your university lecturer that the big clock in the building is fast and you really are handing your assignment in on time? If you ever try to convince someone of something, you are trying to sell them to your way of thinking.

So next time you think poorly of a sales person, consider what you do? Consider whether better sales skills would you help your kids to eat their vegetables at night, or convince your patient in the hospital to take their meds without complaining. Whether you are an academic, a technician, a builder or an engineer – everyone sells. So how are your sales skills?

People get busy. I get busy. What I question are the fruits of that busyness. It is very common to see people frantically running around the office, continually complaining about how busy they are, yet seeing limited results. The scary thing is that it is these busy people who are often too busy to make sales calls or too busy to do a follow up. In essence they are too busy to bring in any business.

To compound the issue it is also common for people to make excuses for busy people. “I can see why they’ve struggled with sales this month, they’ve been so busy.” – That doesn’t make any sense…

If there is a genuine capacity issue at your office then put forward a case to hire someone else, however if you really look at where your time is spent you may realize that you spend 20% of time on the activities that bring in business and 80% of your time on being busy.

This is also relevant to companies – sometimes its not the fault of the sales person and they can spend 80% of their time being busy (and not making sales) because they are expected to. Mixed focus tasks and overly heavy administrative duties can give people an excuse to be busy when the,’ why aren’t you performing question comes up?’

So consider your core tasks and what it is that you do to bring business in the door. Don’t let busyness stand in the way of business.

Creativity is my favourite characteristic in a person. Think about the most creative people you know. I’m sure that you are currently thinking of musicians, artists, engineers etc… However if you really think about it creativity is a characteristic that propels businesses forward.

It’s creative people who build better processes, it’s creative people who question the status quo and look to improve structure, it’s the creative people who can often inspire the people around them. Creativity is the root of innovation. Innovation is a word that is much more synonymous with business.

If you look at all of the entrepreneurs in the world, they have created a way to deliver a product or service better than anyone else in the world. They have had self belief and enough confidence to propel their companies in to the stratosphere.

When we look at these geniuses, like the Google guys, they are not “typical” business people, but if you look at all of the most successful people, they aren’t “typical” business people. They are creative people who can create a vision and get everyone excited about it, or create the ladder and get everyone else to climb it.

So next time you are considering applying for a promotion or looking at a job that’s another rung up the ladder, think about the person who created that ladder. Is that something you can do? Remember, we can’t all be Managing Directors of big successful companies, but if that’s what we want – we sure as hell can try!

So often we talk about the price of something. I find myself asking it all the time after being shown something new. ‘How much did that set you back?’ or ‘How much does one of those cost?’ The truth of the matter is that often we will ask the price to see if we could afford one in our lives, or if we could throw it on the wish list.

When we buy something, getting a good price makes us feel like we have just outsmarted a system as old as mankind, ‘I’ve done something that no one else has ever done before.’

The psychology of this ‘need to come off on top’ will drive people to do some pretty stupid things. It may, for example, drive them to go to several locations, burning excessive fuel and time in an effort to save $10.00 – this to me is a love of the feeling more than the reality of “getting a good deal.”

We also hear a lot of negative publicity towards sales people and price. With the mass adoption of the internet it’s not easy to get ‘ripped off’ any more unless you really try. Researching a product takes five seconds and can be conducted whenever you want. So the point therein lies that if people are trying to achieve a smoking price, yet the margins are already excessively low from high competition and greater transparency, where else can a sales person take the ‘deal’ to provide the customer the feeling of ‘getting a good one.’

This is where value comes into play – the intangible assets such as customer service, relationships, care, training, etc… All of these other great elements that can make someone walk away feeling like they ‘got a good deal.’

From a customer’s point of view (and we are all customers), constantly trying to screw someone down will lead to nothing but consistently poor service. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible to provide cost price product and still be able to hire someone to provide the service. If I ask my friend to build me a computer at cost, can I really expect him to prioritize me over a client who is paying his wage? If this is the case between friends, how do you think strangers would act? I could be pushed to the end of the priority list forever. As a result I am getting a great ‘deal’ pricewise, however I am not being prioritized, no one is contacting me and I can’t for the life of me understand why???????

So put yourself in the other persons’ shoes. Consider margins when you are a customer, and consider value when you are a sales person. All we both want to do is leave the transaction feeling good about it, and feeling as though we have accomplished what we set out to do.