Recently, in class, Professor Sweet taught about the three myths of selling. I found these three myths to be very insightful and interesting because I had not thought about sales in any of these aspects. After putting some thought into it, I realized that these are in fact myths that a lot of people think of when they hear the word “sales”.
- Myth of the Blockhead –
The myth of the blockhead refers to the difficulty of a sales position. Have you ever heard the phrase, “it doesn’t take a genius to sell?”. This phrase implies that anyone can be a salesperson because it’s easy. The common misconception is that sales is a fallback job for anyone that can’t hold a position elsewhere. This idea of sales being for everyone is very much a myth. Sales takes countless hours of time, effort and practice. Although you may be born a natural, with an outgoing personality and smooth tongue, it still takes time to learn your product, practice giving pitches, and dealing with the rejection that comes from customers. Not everyone can handle a high pressure sales role.
2. Myth of the Moneygrubber –
The myth of the moneygrubber puts an emphasis on the motivation behind a salesperson. The idea is that salespeople are viewed as greedy and just want to close a sale at any expense. They totally neglect the customer’s needs and only want money in their pockets. This myth could not be further from the truth. Their has been a great shift of the role that a salesperson plays since the 2000s. This shift has moved sales towards relationship selling. This kind of selling involves a salesperson identifying their customer’s needs/problems and finding an advantageous solution that will benefit them. Most salespeople truly do care for their customers and work hard to build and maintain relationships with them.
3. Myth of the Natural –
The myth of natural pertains to our chemical makeup as humans. We often hear the phrase, “that kid is a natural born salesman”. This may be true because certain individuals are born with the necessary skills that can help them in the world sales. However, these individuals are not the only people suited for sales. Being a natural in sales is a myth because anyone can develop the skills for sales with practice. Each individual has their own unique set of skills and way of selling which can be applied to their career as a salesperson.
BoweryJE22
I am not going to lie, I also bought into the myths of selling prior to taking this class. I think it is important to let people be informed of what a true sales person is and not let them make judgements based on stereotypes.
I had not heard the official names for these myths but I’ve definitely unconsciously internalized them. I’ve learned in class that these are not the case, but it helps to clearly read it in your blog.
I definitely with the comments above. Before really talking about them in the sales classes I too believed this myths of selling, but they aren’t true at all! Way to clear things up Christian. Thanks 🙂
The myth of the natural is very interesting to me since I did believe for a long time that some people just knew how to sell to other people and those were the only sales people, but that is not the case since anyone could be a successful sales person.
I think as evident as these myths certainly are still within today’s culture, our world has also advanced in thought so much so in the past few years that these myths have become less relevant in today’s age, and you hit on the points ‘why’ well.