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Why Most Salespeople Aren’t Professionals

By Will Turner

Most salespeople bemoan the fact that they are often treated with less respect than other business people. Ask any salesperson and they will tell you countless stories about their calls not being returned, prospects that didn’t show up for appointments, lies they’ve been told and other horrible tales. Why is it that salespeople aren’t treated as professionals?

The simple answer is because they often haven’t behaved as professionals. Think about other business people who are perceived as professionals, who have professions, not just jobs or careers. Doctors, lawyers, dentists, accountants, engineers, architects and plumbers come to mind. There are others, but you’d probably be hard-pressed to find anyone who would put salespeople on that list.

So what’s the difference between accountants and salespeople? Most salespeople treat their jobs as just that - jobs. They find someone willing to hire them with no experience and no training and they set off on their path. They might get a few weeks of training at their new job, but most of it is focused on learning the specs of the product or a canned pitch. After that, it’s the school of hard knocks that teaches them how to survive. And that’s all they learn - how to survive. They don’t take the time or the money to learn how to thrive, how to be extraordinary salespeople, how to help others get the things they want in life while earning a terrific living themselves.

Professionals go to school, often for long periods of time. They apprentice with other skilled practitioners. They read countless books on their profession and even after they’ve earned their degrees and have practiced for years they educate themselves continuously, remaining current in their field. How many salespeople do you know who do that? How many have invested the time and money to become experts, to learn their craft from the ground up, to have sound fundamentals that they practice every day with every client?

What if other professionals saw their world the same way most salespeople do? Would you want a doctor operating on you who looked at his profession from a survival or a “good enough” mode? Would you want to work with one who said, “Well, I’ve had a course or two in anatomy, I guess I know enough to operate now.”

I think it’s time we demanded more from ourselves and our profession. It’s time we started investing in ourselves and in our clients’ future. We can’t continue to do just enough to get by and expect that things will improve for us. The way we approach things now is just going to get us more of the same; poor treatment and a lack of respect that we’ve earned through our own unwillingness to change our behavior and become true professionals. It’s time to make a decision - become professionals or live with the consequences.

© Dancing Elephants Achievement Group 2003