Sales Engagement

Preface

Sales Engagement: Why We Do What We Do

Sales is an art. Yet salespeople get a bad rap. This unfair discrepancy is the reason we started our company, Outreach.

I genuinely love salespeople. Hell, salespeople make the world go ’round.

Without salespeople, society as we know it would crumble. The word salesy is derogatory, yet the entire edifice of capitalism is built on the brunt of their hard work. Ideas, visions, and dreams have to be sold before they become real and start bringing in revenue. In fact, just about everything we enjoy or depend on (food, gadgets, films, sports, wine, health care, apps, music, art, travel, etc.) begins with a sale. Our economy quite literally depends on salespeople’s ability to endure an entire day of rejection and still get up the next morning and do it all over again.

And there’s plenty of rejection to go around. In sales, you are always on blast. Show me another profession where your performance is so cut and dried for everyone to see. You may think of professional sports or reality shows, but that’s exactly my point. Those professions receive fame and glory (or at least infamy), whereas sales gets a negative rap. In sales, you get the ruthlessness without the chance of a red carpet. You either make the number and get to play another round—or you don’t and are shown the door. It’s the only job where the score gets cleared every quarter and you’re only as good as your last deal.

When you think about it, sales should be the ultimate ...