12.22.2010

Why Selfish Sales Guy Behavior Makes us Avoid You.

No one likes being around selfish people.

A selfish sales person is much worse.

It’s a shame.

The entire craft of generating sales revenue is crumbling due to our inability to change our selfish behavior.

A few days ago the ever-brilliant David Brock, began the following conversation:

“Tis the season to be talking about the “Death Of Sales.” which I’ll shamelessly exploit. As the year ends, I’m seeing a lot of blogs forecasting the death of sales. However, it seems that we’ve had the discussion, over and over and over….. Other than being great blog fodder, I sometimes wonder why we continually speculate about the death of sales and selling. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking on the part of the poor victims of sales people.

To which I made the following comment:

The fundamental problem with the sales evolution is that while our ACTIONS tend to appear to evolve at a respectably comparable rate to social developments, our ATTITUDES tend to trail that evolution considerably. If ever catching up at all…

We are intellectual Neanderthals crudely pounding away at the sales cycle with any sense of self.

While we are doing similar activities (phone calling, email messaging, social media, etc…) the means (intent, strategy, attitude…) behind those activities is mostly selfish and destructive. Perhaps unintentionally.

Selfish attitudes, and self-limiting activities KILL the person employing them. Sometimes literally. But they also have an effect on everybody around them.

When those selfish sales activities demonstrate short term returns (and usually always do), legions of observers take that as a sign from above that “this is working…” and are quick to jump on the bandwagon.

That spiral has only accelerated as technology allows us to socially broadcast to an unprecedented numbers of “friends”….

The conversation is something that you should consider heading into the New Year.

If people are avoiding you, maybe it’s because they want one less selfish person in their life.

You can change that at any time.

http://www.partnersinexcellenceblog.com Dave Brock

Provocative post, as always, Daniel. I’m not sure if selfishness and self interest are different, but I like to think about self interest.

Self interest is natural human behavior–we all act in our own self interest, otherwise we wouldn’t survive. Even those who are ostensibly “giving” are operating out of self interest.

Self interest is natural and not necessarily bad. The critical thing from a sales point of view is aligning your self interests with the self interests of the customer. I want to sell a product, my customer wants to solve a problem that my product solves, we have a potential to align our self interests.

Not recognizing that we act on our self interests, our managers act out of their self interests, and our customers act out of their self interests is unrealistic.

I suppose when self interests are not aligned, we are starting to see selfishness.
http://www.partnersinexcellenceblog.com Dave Brock

Provocative post, as always, Daniel. I’m not sure if selfishness and self interest are different, but I like to think about self interest.

Self interest is natural human behavior–we all act in our own self interest, otherwise we wouldn’t survive. Even those who are ostensibly “giving” are operating out of self interest.

Self interest is natural and not necessarily bad. The critical thing from a sales point of view is aligning your self interests with the self interests of the customer. I want to sell a product, my customer wants to solve a problem that my product solves, we have a potential to align our self interests.

Not recognizing that we act on our self interests, our managers act out of their self interests, and our customers act out of their self interests is unrealistic.

I suppose when self interests are not aligned, we are starting to see selfishness.

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

The most basic function of our brain is survival. That’s the core of who we are as people.

You explanation about self interest and apparent selfishness is critical to understanding why we do what we do.

The difference is attitude. (Which is silly for me to pretend to judge or interpret.) It is, however, something that we should all be thinking about.

Just because you are doing something that “appears” to be right doesn’t mean it is.

The attitude behind giving, selling, and solving problems is what genuinely drives outrageous results.

Dave, I suspect that with your long track record of problem solving and charity work, you have mastered the attitude of “giving”… Me copying you (your actions, at least) doesn’t mean I can ever stand to achieve anything close.

To do that I need to change my attitude.

Dan

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

The most basic function of our brain is survival. That’s the core of who we are as people.

You explanation about self interest and apparent selfishness is critical to understanding why we do what we do.

The difference is attitude. (Which is silly for me to pretend to judge or interpret.) It is, however, something that we should all be thinking about.

Just because you are doing something that “appears” to be right doesn’t mean it is.

The attitude behind giving, selling, and solving problems is what genuinely drives outrageous results.

Dave, I suspect that with your long track record of problem solving and charity work, you have mastered the attitude of “giving”… Me copying you (your actions, at least) doesn’t mean I can ever stand to achieve anything close.

To do that I need to change my attitude.

Dan
http://newsalescoach.com Mike Weinberg

Thanks for tackling this Dan. It’s a big deal. What bothers me most is how much damage this selfish self-focused behavior does to our profession — and allows others who see it to paint all of us with a broad brush.
http://newsalescoach.com Mike Weinberg

Thanks for tackling this Dan. It’s a big deal. What bothers me most is how much damage this selfish self-focused behavior does to our profession — and allows others who see it to paint all of us with a broad brush.

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

Great point, Mike.

The losers don’t care. They’ll just come up with another scam. It’s the genuine players who have to resuscitate their customers – bring them back from the edge of insanity. :-)

Dan

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

Great point, Mike.

The losers don’t care. They’ll just come up with another scam. It’s the genuine players who have to resuscitate their customers – bring them back from the edge of insanity. :-)

Dan
http://salesguru.pl/en Artur Kuć

I really like Dave’s approach. Self interest isn’t necessarily bad. Salespeople should also remember about their agendas and aligning them with customer’s world.

The other dangerous behavior I observe is, at the other hand, extreme “sales-altruism”. You can see it when a salesperson blindly fulfills all the (selfish) wishes of a (selfish) customer, who already knows that he or she isn’t going to buy anyway… Of course the salesperson doesn’t know that yet. So, when a prospect says: “maybe we could make a decision quicker, only if you could provide us some extra trainings (free trials, demonstrations, presentations, consulting hours etc.) ” – the salesperson tries to give away everything he can, just to make the other side happy…

Let’s think for a while this way: Why do customers talk to salespeople? Because customers are also selfish. They think about solving their own problems, fulfilling their needs and getting themselves the best possible deals. Isn’t that selfish? Of course it is. We all do that buying products, solutions, services…

In my opinion being somehow “selfish” in sales is OK. But at the same time the salespeople should be REALLY interested in knowing the customer’s world, situation and problems. As Dave said – align :)
http://salesguru.pl/en Artur Kuć

I really like Dave’s approach. Self interest isn’t necessarily bad. Salespeople should also remember about their agendas and aligning them with customer’s world.

The other dangerous behavior I observe is, at the other hand, extreme “sales-altruism”. You can see it when a salesperson blindly fulfills all the (selfish) wishes of a (selfish) customer, who already knows that he or she isn’t going to buy anyway… Of course the salesperson doesn’t know that yet. So, when a prospect says: “maybe we could make a decision quicker, only if you could provide us some extra trainings (free trials, demonstrations, presentations, consulting hours etc.) ” – the salesperson tries to give away everything he can, just to make the other side happy…

Let’s think for a while this way: Why do customers talk to salespeople? Because customers are also selfish. They think about solving their own problems, fulfilling their needs and getting themselves the best possible deals. Isn’t that selfish? Of course it is. We all do that buying products, solutions, services…

In my opinion being somehow “selfish” in sales is OK. But at the same time the salespeople should be REALLY interested in knowing the customer’s world, situation and problems. As Dave said – align :)

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

Let me be candid.

It’s impossible for an outsider (like me) to differentiate between self-interest and selfish behavior. I am “deducing” at best.

At the most basic un-evolved state of our being, our amygdala makes decisions based on fear and pain and the memory of those instances through our own historical context. It’s a basic survival mentality. Call it “fight-or-flight”…

I am just concerned when we use those same apparent crude stimulations for a much more evolved endeavor.

Dan

p.s. Let me kindly suggest that it’s a faulty position to use the selfish behavior of buyers as justification for our own.

http://www.DanWaldschmidt.com/ Dan Waldschmidt

Let me be candid.

It’s impossible for an outsider (like me) to differentiate between self-interest and selfish behavior. I am “deducing” at best.

At the most basic un-evolved state of our being, our amygdala makes decisions based on fear and pain and the memory of those instances through our own historical context. It’s a basic survival mentality. Call it “fight-or-flight”…

I am just concerned when we use those same apparent crude stimulations for a much more evolved endeavor.

Dan

p.s. Let me kindly suggest that it’s a faulty position to use the selfish behavior of buyers as justification for our own.
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http://www.todaybody.com Natasha Benning

not too long and easy to understand
http://www.todaybody.com 6 Pack Abs

if only you can shorten the writing a bit :)
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Why Selfish Sales Guy Behavior Makes us Avoid You.

You can change that at any time.

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