Sales is a very broad subject that touches many industries. With such a large exposure to sales, people are bound to make presumptions involving: sales personalities, sales funnels, and who should be selling. Today we are going to go over 5 fallacies within sales.
- People in a Sales Position Sell Best – Although people trained in sales can be great at their jobs, everyone in an organization can be a successful “salesperson.” The idea of getting everyone involved in sales within an organization is known as, “elasticity.” Elasticity is more efficient and more effective than saving sales for a traditional sales role.
- Extroverts are the Best Salespeople – Extroverts can be successful in the sales world; however they are not predisposed to be the best. Extroverts can sometimes struggle with knowing when to listen vs. when to speak. Introverts, on the other hand, have the opposite problem. Ambiverts, people possessing traits of both extroverts and introverts, are naturally the best salespeople as they are generally proficient at social cartography.
- Sales is About the Product – This is probably the most dangerous fallacy of all of the ones listed in this post. Focusing on the product will make consumers frustrated, and will make them feel as though they cannot trust you. Focusing on the consumer and their pains/desires is a much more reliable way to approach sales.
- Sales is a Conversation – Just kidding… this is not a fallacy of sales, and is actually a very effective way of thinking.Just seeing if you’re paying attention. If you approach every sales situation as a conversation, you will find it easier to understand your conusmer’s needs. If you can understand your consumer needs, you will be able to meet them in a way that they do not feel pressured.
Hopefully this list helps you better understand what sales actually is. Sales has a bad reputation from it’s past. However, as Daniel Pink says, the reputation sales has is “woefully outdated.”
I have believed the first 3 fallacies you mentioned at some point in my life. It is very easy to come up with false generalizations about sales if you fail to look closely at what successful and meaningful sales really looks like. Clearly building customer relationships is far more important today than getting the “right” salesman or pushing the perfect product.