Salespeople rule

IT’S A rarely acknowledged but undeniable fact that salespeople pay everybody else’s wages – they are the only people in an organisation that bring money in – everyone else takes it out.

If you have nobody to sell your product or service then you don’t have a business.

Yet salespeople are seldom honoured, exalted or even appreciated by the very people who rely on them for a job.

They are expected to extol the virtues of their product or company even though they get little support and encouragement and are often “looked down on by their colleagues” – the ones in “proper” jobs.

They are also expected to perform at high levels of performance and seldom given the knowledge and training needed to make it in today’s competitive business environment.

Today there are thousands of HR managers and training managers busy filling out workplace skills plans for submission to sector education and training authorities. Chances are that among the first things on their lists will be health and safety, fire-fighting, first aid and Aids awareness – all the things that contribute zero to the efficiency and profitability of a company. But will the salespeople, the people in the trenches fighting for everybody’s pay cheque, be on the list? If so, they will probably get the budget leftovers.

Refresher programmes to motivate and build confidence in salespeople to let them know they’re appreciated will probably not feature – and as a result everybody loses.

Having worked with and trained salespeople for half-a-century, I’m amazed and disappointed at how much they get taken for granted – maybe this letter will serve as a wake-up call.