Sales as religion
When you're in sales you're in a category of business that is constantly being examined, discussed and philosophized. Many of us never tire of discussing sales, selling, sales techniques, and sales management (much to the dismay of our spouses). Sometimes I think that sales is more like a religion than an aspect of business.
I've been thinking about why sales is so interesting and the only reason I can come up with is because it is primarily achieved through the interaction of people. People are interesting to other people and anything that involves the interaction of people to achieve a goal is interesting. At least that's why it seems to me that sales is a more interesting business topic to most people than accounting (the interaction of people with numbers) or engineering (the interaction of people with buildings, machines, roads, etc).
Now matter how much time I spend thinking about sales, I am always pleasantly surprised that others who are thinking about sales are thinking about different aspects than me. I am excited to expose you to this other thinking by exploring sales blogs and referring you to them.
Karl Goldfield hands the reins of his blog to a guest writer who discusses how the criticality of a purchase to an organization has a direct and proportionate relationship to the price one is able to negotiate. Click to read the post (http://salesblog.karlgoldfield.com/2008/06/)
One of my favorite sales blogs by Ian Brodie discusses ethics in sales this week - a complicated and interesting topic that could probably be written about every single day. Join the conversation by reading the post and then commenting here: http://www.lighthousebc.co.uk/blog/articles/ethics-in-sales.html
Sometimes the most thought provoking or valuable posts are the shortest. I think you'll find that's the case with Skip Anderson's entry viewable here: http://blog.sellingtoconsumers.com/2008/06/please-invite-five-friends.html
Keep on thinking and talking about sales and let me know when you run across something worth discussing!
Tim,
Great topic. I also wonder if it because there are so many ways to approach it. I describe sales to my team as being 50% art and 50% science. Most people are able to fully wrap their head around both sides. The seem to either fully engage with people or data, to be great you really have to get both sides of the equation in the proper balance.
Religion is a interesting concept though. I had never really thought about it from that point of view. Now that you mention it though i think many people do approach it in much the same way.
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I think you're right Tim - sales can become an obsession. Maybe because it's so people dependent there's also less "science" and more art to it - which makes it even more interesting.
Ian
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So true, selling is about PEOPLE. I've been spending a lot of time in my consulting work trying to get organizations to realize that people-to-people contact is at the core of the sales transaction. Have better contact and you'll have better sales! Salespeople are people! Customers are people! Cool!
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