Sales Badassery

8SALES BADASSES NEVER SEEK APPROVALStop Chasing and Start Getting

Let me explain to you why salespeople almost inevitably wind up seeking approval and even end up chasing after it.

One thing I routinely see when training salespeople is an inferiority complex. I’ve mentioned the television and Hollywood stereotypes of salespeople that contribute to this. With or without that, however, it’s usually there, because salespeople are led to believe that the prospect is the boss and the salesperson is there to serve.

Although this may be partially true—you certainly do need to serve your customers after they buy—it gets salespeople seeking and chasing the approval of prospects when in reality they could just as easily show up as an equal or a superior and never have to deal with any of that nonsense.

You sure as hell are not obligated to serve anyone who hasn’t paid you and become your customer, so don’t give in to their demands that you do.

In my case, what happened was that I went into sales, got my first outside sales job, went off to sales training, and was ordered to cold call relentlessly.

Now you know my opinion of cold calling. It doesn’t work anymore in our twenty-first-century, Information Age economy. There are simply too many ways for prospects to find what they need on their own, which is why they no longer accept cold calls and why you need to position yourself where prospects will see you and proverbially raise their hands to show interest.

Having said that, I didn’t ...