The Profession of Selling Debate.

I recently had an interesting after dinner debate with a group of people regarding careers. In the room there was a solicitor, a doctor, a marketing manager, an accountants, a bank manager, and myself of course the salesman!
A number of the people in the group were somewhat surprised to learn I had devoted my entire career on sales. It was even suggested that selling isn't really a career. Many years ago I would have reacted in a slightly different way but this is not the first time I have been involved in a discussion of this nature.
The initial argument was centred on the point that of all of the professions represented, 'selling' was the only one that did not require a qualification. I do concede this point and think more should be done to introduce a professional selling qualification that should be mandatory before a salesperson is allowed to practice. This would prevent any potential buyers from being exposed to the 'cowboys' or the 'sales sharks'. The main point I wanted to get across though was the irony of the debate, because every one of the qualified professionals were in someway dependant on 'Sales', even more ironic was the fact that most of them had regularly played a part in the selling process. Some of them even admitted to attending some sales training, at some point in their careers.
The fact is whatever department you are in there will be some dependency on the sales team. Without people continuously selling your products or services your company will not attract sufficient revenue, if you don't have orders you don't need anyone to fulfil them!
More importantly, businesses have to recognise exactly who does play a part in the sales process and ensure that no matter how well qualified they are, they are given the required training to ensure they integrate with the sales team. I personally believe that whatever your chosen career, you are better equipped for long term success if you are competent in selling.
Whether or not you are an accountant, an architect, a lawyer, or a bank manager, you will almost certainly meet customers from time to time, is that not selling? You will want to convince internal and external customers that your particular viewpoint is the best way to proceed, is that not selling? You may even sit with prospective clients in an attempt to convince them to leave their current service provider and give you their business, surely that is selling.
I am pleased to write that most of the people in the group admitted that 'selling' is often overlooked as a both as a profession and as an important business unit, and in the absence of any regulation that is unlikely to change. More importantly as long as companies are allowed to employ people with little or no sales experience, who deploy devious tactics to entice people to place an order with them, the image of the sales person is unlikely to change and we will continue to have these debates for a long time.

appleton associates is a nationwide sales development consultancy, offering access to a small but high quality network of sales training consultants with expertise in a wide range of sales development issues. Our main areas of work include: Sales training (design and delivery), Strategic sales consultancy, Interim sales management, Sales team & management development, Sales support, Sales skills and competency profiling.

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