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Selling it - Teaching sales - Column

Wearables Business - April 1, 2004

Byline: JEFF RUNDLES

Earlier this year, in February, we ran a feature article by Rock Neelly, which we titled "How to land the big one," that honed in on sales techniques from some of the best sales people in the business. In this edition, just a couple of months later, we again address the issue of sales, in our feature "Sales makes the wearables world go 'round."

They are very similar in nature, and in some cases we visited with the same people. But you know what? Not one person we talked with thought that was odd. If we wrote a story on denim shirts every other month, most people, even the denim shirt guys, would think that we were probably going a bit overboard.

But you simply can't go overboard on the subject of sales. It is endless. It is timeless. It runs so deep that even the Supreme Court might say they couldn't define it, but would know it when they see it.

If there was a definitive answer to the question "What makes a person buy?," then the discussion would be moot. That, of course, is not possible. If there was a serum that, once given to a person, would make anyone absolutely great at sales, it would be more profitable than Viagra, and probably even more satisfying. Once again, that's not going to happen.

You look out on the landscape of our business and you see people who make shirts, people who solve problems, people adept at advertising, and people who specialize in T-shirts, among other things. But what they all - supplier and distributor alike - have in common is the constant search for perfection in sales. Achieving perfection - arriving at Sales Nirvana - is impossible, so the search goes on. Endlessly.

We in the promotional products business are not alone, of course. The search for sales perfection goes on in nearly every industry on earth. I have a friend who maintains that any successful endeavor - scientific, educational, commercial, legal, anything - is, ultimately, sales. Even those who get ahead in any profession, those who rise the quickest through the ranks, often do so through successful self-promotion, an important form of sales. And many times, the people who reach senior management in companies that have many disciplines come from the ranks of people engaged in sales.

Without sales, we have nothing.

So, why is it that when I go to college I can major in any number of specific topics, and in business school I can pinpoint a specialty like management or marketing, but I can't select sales? We don't give Master's Degrees in sales. Most successful sales people I know got their college degrees, if they have one at all, in chemical engineering or accounting or English, and their MBA stands for Most Bodacious Achiever.

The worst thing is that most young people you meet don't want anything to do with sales, as if it were demeaning.

We find great sales people by accident, and they spend a lot of their lives - when they're not selling and meeting their customers' every need - defending the fact that they couldn't get a real job.

We need to change this perception. We need to reach out to young people especially and convince them that not only is sales most likely in their future, they will most likely love it.

You know. We need to sell it.

Byline: JEFF RUNDLES

Earlier this year, in February, we ran a feature article by Rock Neelly, which we titled "How to land the big one," that honed in on sales techniques from some of the best sales people in the business. In this edition, just a couple of months later, we again address the issue of sales, in our feature "Sales makes the wearables world go 'round."

They are very similar in nature, and in some cases we visited with the same people. But you know what? Not one person we talked with thought that was odd. If we wrote a story on denim shirts every other month, most people, even the denim shirt guys, would think that we were probably going a bit overboard.

But you simply can't go overboard on the subject of sales. It is endless. It is timeless. It runs so deep that even the Supreme Court might say they couldn't define it, but would know it when they see it.

If there was a definitive answer to the question "What makes a person buy?," then the discussion would be moot. That, of course, is not possible. If there was a serum that, once given to a person, would make anyone absolutely great at sales, it would be more profitable than Viagra, and probably even more satisfying. Once again, that's not going to happen.

You look out on the landscape of our business and you see people who make shirts, people who solve problems, people adept at advertising, and people who specialize in T-shirts, among other things. But what they all - supplier and distributor alike - have in common is the constant search for perfection in sales. Achieving perfection - arriving at Sales Nirvana - is impossible, so the search goes on. Endlessly.

We in the promotional products business are not alone, of course. The search for sales perfection goes on in nearly every industry on earth. I have a friend who maintains that any successful endeavor - scientific, educational, commercial, legal, anything - is, ultimately, sales. Even those who get ahead in any profession, those who rise the quickest through the ranks, often do so through successful self-promotion, an important form of sales. And many times, the people who reach senior management in companies that have many disciplines come from the ranks of people engaged in sales.

Without sales, we have nothing.

So, why is it that when I go to college I can major in any number of specific topics, and in business school I can pinpoint a specialty like management or marketing, but I can't select sales? We don't give Master's Degrees in sales. Most successful sales people I know got their college degrees, if they have one at all, in chemical engineering or accounting or English, and their MBA stands for Most Bodacious Achiever.

The worst thing is that most young people you meet don't want anything to do with sales, as if it were demeaning.

We find great sales people by accident, and they spend a lot of their lives - when they're not selling and meeting their customers' every need - defending the fact that they couldn't get a real job.

We need to change this perception. We need to reach out to young people especially and convince them that not only is sales most likely in their future, they will most likely love it.

You know. We need to sell it.

COPYRIGHT 2004 PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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