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When we try to not sound “salesy,” we are more “salesy” than ever. Being genuine is the most important part of being a great salesperson.

We Don’t Want Our People to Sound “Salesy”

Unfortunately, I have this conversation more than I would like in my current career. This request is made by many organizations who believe “sales” is a bad word or something dishonest. Recently I had a potential client call me and ask me if I would do a keynote for them. They said they loved my energy and message about sales and sales practice. Then they asked, “Can you do that without sounding ‘salesy’?”

“Salesy?” I asked them to explain what they meant by “salesy.” They said, “Our people don’t see themselves as salespeople although they get paid to obtain new clients and get current clients to invest more in their services. They see themselves as financial experts that help clients.”

I responded, “Sounds like a great salesperson so far.” They continued to explain that they share their expertise and experience with the client and show them how they can help them too. They stressed that they are more concerned about helping than selling. I agreed with the intent of their message 100 percent, but their desire to not use any “sales” words was a sure-fire way to limit their success. My advice was to stop viewing sales as a negative term and view it as serving. I told them three important facts:

• No one can be successful doing a job they view as dishonest or wrong.
• The more we try not to be something, the more we are trying not to be ourselves.
• How we get paid does not determine if we are honest or not. Who we are and what we do determines our honesty.

The Idea That “Salesy” Is Another Name for a Bad Salesperson

No one wants to be sold or feel like they are being manipulated. Great salespeople don’t do either one, but a con man does. If your job is to help people or organizations buy your service or product to benefit them, then I would recommend focusing on understanding them and not worry about being “salesy.” Selling is a skill that must be learned and practiced. Selling is about understanding our prospects and customers, not telling them about us and how much we have done or can do. A great salesperson makes those around them comfortable, they are transparent, genuine and practiced. The most common mistake I hear from people who do not want to sound “salesy” is they say, “I am not here to sell you anything.” “Then why are you here?” is what I would ask them.

They do this in an attempt to put the prospect or customer at ease. The problem is it does not put the customer at ease, in fact, it puts them more on edge, because now they don’t know what to expect. It is like when someone (especially one you don’t know) says, “trust me.”

The next time you find yourself getting ready to say this, try a different approach that may help you with your client. Try, “we only sell to those clients that we know we can help and that believe we are the best partner for them.” At least now we are not starting our meeting off with a lie. Last note on this, when we try to not sound “salesy,” we end up sounding very “salesy” and disingenuous.

How We Get Paid Does Determine Our Honesty

So often we are told you can’t trust salespeople because they get paid on commission. I have personally met and have been sold to from honest salespeople on commission. I have also met dishonest, or not genuine people, who were on a salary. I found that a person is honest based on themselves, not their compensation plan. Commissions are used to align a salesperson’s pay with the company’s profit. By the way, so are salaries, they are just not as visible.

A commissioned salesperson must not maximize their commission on a sale, rather they must focus on what is best for the person in the long-term because that is the only way they can guarantee future business and, therefore, future income. I don’t worry how a person is paid that is selling to me, I worry about whether they know and understand me. There are honest and dishonest people in every profession. My goal is to work with the honest doctors, dentists, contractors, service people, and lawyers, and everyone in between, regardless of their pay structure.

Be Proud of What You Do for You and for Others

You can’t be successful doing a job you are ashamed of, or a position that you see as unethical. Sales is a noble job. It is a job where a person must proactively meet new people that don’t know who they are or what they do and then convince them to meet and give them their most precious asset — their time.

It sends the wrong message when we tell our people to go and get new customers, but don’t be a “salesperson,” especially with the intent that it is because salespeople are bad. This also means that the organization is telling their employees that what they do is less than. This is not done with malicious intent, rather it is done with the intent to “change a perspective of what they do.” I have been in sales all my life and I have never seen myself as “salesy” or less than or in a position with a poor perspective. I have always sold great products and service to those I could truly help, like many of these salespeople that don’t want to be seen as “salespeople.” Selling is serving, and in life the more you serve the more you sell. Be proud of what you do — or find a profession you can be proud of. Our profession does not make us dishonest or shady, we do.

Final Thought

When we as organizations try to treat our salespeople as non-salespeople because we don’t want them to be “salesy,” we take away the need and desire for professional selling skills training and development, and that leads to a low level of success with the bare minimum efforts given. Sales is a skill that helps people help other people. So, I believe we should focus on great skill development and not pretending we don’t need salespeople — because every organization needs sales to have a successful customer base.

By the way, the organization that contacted me and didn’t want the word sales in their workshop or it to have a “sales” feel wasn’t a fit for me and my mindset and I let them know that. I sell, I serve, and I do it with a smile. How about you?

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].