Sales Professionalism

 

The TV Reality show The Apprentice consistently shows Selling in a bad light.

We see “Fools rushing in,” claiming that they are able to ‘sell’, to ‘pitch’ and to ‘close’.
They shame themselves and they shame the Sales Profession.
What we see is below deck discounting; push selling, talking people to death, disrespect and rudeness.

What disturbs me most is any kind of ‘result’, is proclaimed success. Alan Sugar was never famed for quality or service, cheap yes, but even he is damaging his Brand by association with this incompetence.

Professional Selling, is about Product and Marketplace knowledge, it is about superior interactive skills not “professionality”, which is about acting. Professional selling is ethical, repeatable and useful.

Firms rely upon their dependable ability to sell, without selling there is no Company. I firmly believe that Professional Selling means selling what you can deliver, that which the customer needs (and wants).
We are giving a generation of young people a role model that will repel the able and attract the stupid.
It is not learned in the back of a Taxi, nor a Soho Sex shop.

Professional Selling, as a career is both highly paid and personally satisfying. 

It takes a great deal of study and practice to become a Practitioner and even more to be a Master of the Art.