What's the difference between a Sales person and a Sales professional?

When I started my first proper sales job, I worked for two brothers who I thought were natural born sales people. They looked like what I thought sales people looked like, they dressed like sales people and drove top of the range cars. As a young 19 year old, they were everything I thought sales was. How wrong was I.

They inducted us into the company with a 6 week sales programme they co-wrote. This covered all the basics and some advanced areas of the sales process. We had theory, role plays, practice calls, we shadowed on real appointments and we had written tests at the end of every week. Looking back on this, it was impressive stuff but I had little to compare it against at the time. I built an impressive folder of sales material during that time.

I soon began to realise that the reason they seemed like natural sales people was because they were so well versed in their craft it came naturally to them. The best professionals in any field make their skill set look natural because they practice and develop their skills. They always had a book they were reading or listening to. They had tapes of courses on selling and were often meeting other sales professionals to swop ideas and learn more. They kept journals and notes on what worked. Crucially, they also loved sales. They loved the thrill of a good sale and couldn’t abide a dodgy sale.

Sales was an honest profession and done right it was a wonderful thing. Selling was a long term approach. I soon began to see and meet plenty of what I term ‘a sales person’. This is someone who is only interested in making a sale to gain commission. They’ll sell anyone anything, as long as it makes them a pound or two. They are in the churn and burn game. Sell quick and move on to the next mark. They learn the skill or script that makes them convert a high pressure sale and have no real care or concern about the customer.

The difference between a sales person and a sales professional is the attitude, training, values, and a love of serving customers over the long term.

The difference between a sales person and a sales professional is the attitude, training, values, and a love of serving customers over the long term. A sales person is the reason why sales has a negative image in many people’s eyes, as they know someone who has been ripped off and left high and dry by unscrupulous sales tactics. So when it comes to sales - aim to be a sales professional in order to serve your customers in the best way possible.

Start with an assessment of your sales skills, sales knowledge and how you can develop these to ensure that you are recognised for your skills. Sales is made easier and more natural as you develop the right skills. There are so many great books, podcasts, courses and webinars nowadays on sales. There’s still some awful ones as well, but thankfully customer reviews and common sense will normally steer you in the right direction.

Your sales skills will help in all areas of life so get practicing. The best sales skills don’t stand for much if you don’t believe in the product or service you’re involved with . Find a product or service you love and aim to be a sales professional and you’ll have a great time working.

Know+Do run several sales courses to help people fall in love with sales done right. If you’d like to have a chat get in touch via andrew@knowanddo.com or fill in the form below. In the meantime, happy selling.

Emotionally Balanced Founders

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On a very icy, cold and early Janaury morning I joined a networking group called @startups_mcr to share some of the things I have learnt and observed about balancing the emotional pressure of starting a business. This is a huge subject, so I shared a little that I had noted in my nine years of business ownership but also through supporting countless clients through the problems they’ve encountered in running and growing their own enterprises.

Why is the issue of our emotions so important in starting a business?

• Founders throw their heart and soul into a business. They often refer to it as their ‘baby’ and are keenly attached to it. So, when the business goes through ups and downs (and this can be multiple ups and downs in just one day!) so does the owner. Unchecked this can damage our emotional state and knock us off balance.

• For me business is essentially a competitive environment (even when done ethically and with values). Customers choose a supplier and why they do that can have nothing to do with a business being ‘good’, it can be for many other factors such as price, personality, colours, feelings, timings, and so on. Indeed, external forces can destroy sound businesses or disrupt their model (think of what happened to all the suppliers to the large contractor Carillon last year) through no fault of the owner. That means good businesses, and good business owners, will experience unfairness during their entrepreneurial adventures.

• And the statistics tells us that only 4 in every 10 start-ups make it to their 5th birthday [for the record Know+Do is about to turn 9]. Most also stay very small, e.g. 65k of the 100k businesses in Greater Manchester employ less than 5 people; meaning the owners / founders are mostly intimately involved in the everyday delivery of their businesses and the strategy, they are working hard and jugging many duties.

So, I summarised how to consider all this through the 6 S’s of balance:

1. Self. Do not measure yourself against others or take their yardstick for success. Know your own measure, understand yourself and recognise your abilities and weaknesses. If you don’t do this others will create the terms by which they define your success and this will change with the trends, fashions and the fancies of others.

2. Share. I started a business with a colleague (@rammers02) and valued greatly how we complement each other in skill sets, personality and expectations. When one of us is facing a challenge the other is most likely to be found seeking how to turn it into an opportunity. So, I recommend finding those with whom you can share your business journey. And not just at a cursory level but sharing deeply and with knowledge. A mentor can offer this, as could others starting out on a similar path. Sharing with those who can empathise and not just sympathise helps greatly.

3. Smile. In amongst all the problems of your business venture should be fun. You need to want to give everything to it and if it does not make you smile to think of the business then something is out of balance. Setting core values can help with this, they allow you to apply clear thinking and set standards that satisfy you from the outset. Looking for the joy in your work gives you a reward.

4. Sleep. Get enough sleep! Busy as you will be, sleep gives you clear thinking and gives your mind time to process the day. Skip on sleep for too long and you will make bad deals. Even the then Director of the FBI, James Comey, promoted sleep to all his employees (see his story in the book, ‘A Higher Loyalty’). Sufficient rest reduces your chances of making mistakes.

5. Self-Worth. If the business is everything in your life you will be tied far too closely to the company for your own good, and that of your colleagues. If your identity does not extend beyond the company you will one day find yourself lacking in self-worth and unable to find the objective view when you need; as what happens to the business will literally be happening to you at the same time. I’d recommend seeking out and investing in things that make you interesting and give you validation, such as skills, knowledge, experience, love, satisfaction, belief, hobbies or friendships.

6. Skin. A founder has ‘skin in the game’, you are taking a risk with your reputation, your time and probably your money. That little bit of fear or worry can be healthy, it stops you settling for less and getting too comfortable. It forces you to think about improvement and change, to always be striving for the next deal even when you’ve just secured one today. It can mark you as different to an employee and is, when kept in check, a motivating force.

These are just my starting points for the discussion; each founder’s experience is intensely personal. You will have your own views dependent upon your experience and situation. I’d be interested to know how other kept their balance in the early start-up phase. What worked for you and why? Let me know in the comments section below or contact me on bernard@knowanddo.com / @berneeclarke