Reader Sez: Sales Reps are "Slimey"
In a comment to the post "Management Consulting = Huge Ripoff?" reader "ingoodcompany" writes:
If I had a dollar for every time a salesman tried to close a deal with no margin -- or worse, below cost -- just to make his quota at the expense of the company, I could have retired a wealthy man long ago.What's interesting about these remarks is that they neatly encapsulate the kind of things that non-sales personnel say about sales professionals inside most companies. It's refreshing, in a way, to see the bigotry pop out in such an unvarnished representation.
There's a reason why the plaid jacket and bow tie are iconic and culturally repugnant. There's a reason why its been said that "the sale is a fear-driven transaction: The salesman is afraid the customer won't buy, and the customer is afraid he will." There's a reason why the Brooklyn Bridge and swampland in Florida and the Susquehanna Hat Company are proverbial. There's a reason why selling ice to Eskimos is the mark of a motivated but unethical salesman. There's a reason why the terms "slimey", "sleazy" and "slithering" are closely associated with sales. Of course, I could go on and on and on. But the readers get the point here.
Yes, sales makes money for a company...but they're not alone. A lot of great people with tremendous skills support the sales team, packing their parachutes as it were, daily making the sales force more effective in their jobs.
Let's examine each section, because there's something to be learned here.
If I had a dollar for every time a salesman tried to close a deal with no margin -- or worse, below cost -- just to make his quota at the expense of the company, I could have retired a wealthy man long ago.This is simple ignorance of sales dynamics. Unprofitable deals are the direct result of compensating on revenue rather than profit, which is a management decision. The beauty of sales is that the sales team is paid for performance, not activity. If you change the goals, you get different behavior. If you compensate for profit, you get profitable sales. If you don't, you don't.
Some people think that sales reps who are compensated on revenue should voluntarily scuttle unprofitable deals, for the good of the company. But that's asking the sales rep to take a cut in pay as the result of a bad management decision. If somebody asked that of, say, the marketing group, they'd be up in arms!
There's a reason why the plaid jacket and bow tie are iconic and culturally repugnant. There's a reason why its been said that "the sale is a fear-driven transaction: The salesman is afraid the customer won't buy, and the customer is afraid he will." There's a reason why the Brooklyn Bridge and swampland in Florida and the Susquehanna Hat Company are proverbial. There's a reason why selling ice to Eskimos is the mark of a motivated but unethical salesman. There's a reason why the terms "slimey", "sleazy" and "slithering" are closely associated with sales. Of course, I could go on and on and on. But the readers get the point here.The easiest way to put these remarks into perspective is to imagine that they were being said, not about a profession, but about a minority. This is pretty much like saying "There's a reason that Polish people are proverbially stupid." (Some of my ancestors were Polish, which is why I'm using this as an example.) The fact that stereotypes persist doesn't prove they're true -- only that some individuals hold bigoted beliefs.
Yes, sales makes money for a company...but they're not alone. A lot of great people with tremendous skills support the sales team, packing their parachutes as it were, daily making the sales force more effective in their jobs.Actually, I agree with this remark. However, I observe that in many companies the organizations who are supposed to "support" the sales team are actually pursuing their own organizational and career agendas, often at the expense of sales. The worst offender here are marketing groups which, rather than providing support, pretend that they're "driving sales." They set themselves up as "strategists" and waste time and money bloviating when they should be generating leads.
Regardless of the kind of persistent ignorance exhibited in the comment, here's the truth of the matter:
The entire point of business is sales.
If sales don't take place, then there's isn't a business. Therefore:
No person inside a corporation as important as the sales rep.
Not the CEO, not the marketing team, not the CFO. Nobody.
Any organization or individual who drifts away from the primary focus of helping sales to sell is simply a parasite. Worse than useless.
And that's a truth you'll probably never hear from a management consultant.