JC the Sales Guy: Ethical selling

I won’t be so presumptous as to expect that anyone noticed that I haven’t written in a few days.

But I promise you, I haven’t. Really. You can check.

This week marked the start of a new sales gig for me and that has kept me quite busy… and I couldn’t be happier!

I think that there is something magical about that introductory period in a new gig, especially a sales gig. The pressure isn’t on yet, and everyone you see looks like a great lead. The only thing better is closing deals and knowing that your efforts will benefit the customer and the company. The illusive win-win.

While I’m basking in glow of the morning sunlight through my new office window each morning, there are a few things I want to remind myself to ensure that this sales dream remains a good one.

1) Not all leads are created equal

And of course, not all leads are prospects. I’ve heard “sales guru’s” say that to be a legitimate prospect the lead must have the ability to make a purchase, and the authority to make the decision. Those are important, but for me, they must also have a legitimate need to purchase what is being offered. I don’t want people ripping me off, and I won’t do it to other people. Check out Integrity Selling for more. If I want to stay productive, I have to remember to qualify leads before spending too much time on them. Otherwise, I’m socializing, not selling.

2) The “[D]ictionary is the only place that success comes before work.” -Vince Lombardi

I’m going to print that quote and put it up in my office to remind me that even when the successes come, I still have to keep filling the funnel with prospects. And I still have to connect with each prospect at least enough to figure out if they have a legitimate need for the product. And I still have to present a good case supporting why I think they would be best served to invest in my product. And I still have to do the paperwork after the fun part is done and a win-win deal has been agreed to. If I ever get lazy and expect people to buy from me just because others have in the past… well, that’s probably the time to start looking for a new career. No one cares what I did yesterday (and they shouldn’t).

3) Take time to enjoy the people that I meet along the way

Being in Sales doesn’t mean that you have to align yourself as an opponent to your prospects and customers. I would much rather genuinely connect with them and see if I can help. That, to me, is rewarding in ways that the commission check isn’t. I spent too many years of my life in jobs where I still question whether I actually made a difference to some of the people I worked with. Selling products that solve problems for people is something to feel good about.

I’m sure there are other things to remember along the way… other reminders that should keep me pointed in the right direction. What are yours?

P.S. Time for a shameless plug. I have joined mgecom (yep, all lowercase, and yep, it’s a link), one of the leading Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) companies in the industry. In my business development role I am searching for online merchants that might benefit from having an army of sales folks in targeted areas of the internet driving business to their site 24/7/365, on a commission basis. That army of sales folks are called Affiliates, the process is called Affiliate Marketing, and I’m sure I didn’t do the process justice with my description. While I know sales, I still have a LOT to learn about affiliate marketing… but that is OK. The managment and staff at mgecom are excellent and are getting me up to speed quickly. If you know anyone who’s company might benefit from having an affiliate marketing program, or maybe they have one that they are managing in-house, please put them in contact with me. I’d love to chat with them to see if we can help them get the maximum return on every dollar that they put into their program (jeff.cress@mgecom.com). See, that wasn’t too bad, was it. In fact, I’m not even sure that the plug was actually shameless.

Jeff Cress, the Sales Guy