The JF Guest Author Spot

Dave Stein

Yesterday I received an email from a Sandler franchisee inviting me to attend a live “Buyers Are Liars Workshop.” I’ve seen and heard this statement before, but only now feel compelled to voice my opinion.

I don’t know about you, but that phrase and the combative attitude it represents concerns me. Do buyers lie? Sure, some of them do. Do sellers lie?  Same story.

The sales profession has enough to overcome without a sales training industry leader conveying this negative, fatalistic view of selling.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not attacking the Sandler organization or any of their franchisees. ESR covers Sandler and we know they certainly have their share of satisfied, loyal customers in the markets they serve.

But many of us, including Howard Stevens and the University Sales Education Foundation, are working hard to elevate the profession of selling in the U.S. and other parts of the world.  With that in mind, it would certainly help this and future generations of sales professionals for us  to tone down the rhetoric and spend our creative energies helping salespeople better understand how to establish mutually beneficial, trusting relationships with their customers.  If someone doesn’t believe that can be accomplished, they should consider another profession.

Dave Stein, ES Research Group, Inc.
After a career as a sales consultant, trainer, and author, Dave Stein is now founder/CEO of ES Research Group, Inc., which publishes independent evaluations and comparisons of sales training companies and their programs and services. ESR is recognized as the leading authority on sales training programs and sales performance improvement. For the past twenty years Dave has focused on sales performance improvement, sales effectiveness and especially sales training.

JF Comment: The most telling comment within this revealing post is “The sales profession has enough to overcome without a sales training industry leader conveying this negative, fatalistic view of selling.”

Why?

Quite simply because so many of us are truly committed to the highest standards in advancing this profession and maintaining its integrity. Elevating the status of professional selling is a passion for me, and I find it depressing to continually discover organizations who seem hell bent on wanting to take us back to the “dark ages” 

This is an extract from an excellent article written by my colleague Dr. Tony Alessandra

“Traditional selling has another Achilles’ heel. It creates tension and could be construed as adversarial. Traditional salespeople often perceive their prospects as people with whom they must go to battle to win business. This power-struggle mind set is supported by sales trainers who teach manipulative sales technique and by books with combative titles such as Hard Ball Selling, Guerrilla Marketing, and The Sale Begins When The Customer Says No.

It does not take a genius to realize that the focus in traditional selling is misplaced and myopic. The commando approach to selling is obsolete. It does not foster referrals, references, repeat business, word-of-mouth advertising, customer satisfaction, or good will.”

You can read the entire article “Collaborative Selling” here

Tomorrow: It’s JF Uncut, and I will be revealing just how unreliable and misleading statistics can be – particularly when they are provided by Invesp – “Lies, More Lies & Statistics“

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog