What everyone knows and sellers have a hard time admitting. Theory about the behavior of successful salespeople.
Perhaps when reading the title of this note you think "why do we have to be crazy?" Then I see that he is a salesman who still needs to develop in this profession and I envy his curiosity because it reminds me of when everything was to come in my career. On the other hand, if you thought "I'm not crazy, I'm a salesman because I chose it, I love doing it", then I suspect that you will be such a crazy professional salesperson that you didn't even realize your madness and with this note you are going to confirm it. And if when you read it you thought that indeed you are crazy for having chosen sales, it is because you are a true professional salesperson who recognizes that sales is not an easy or quiet profession and that you have to be crazy to have chosen it as a profession.
Let's start by looking at the definition that the dictionary gives us
Crazy: adj. That he has lost his mind. Poor judgment, reckless. Which far exceeds what is expected.
You may not accept that the first part of the definition resembles how you see yourself as a successful salesperson, but it is normal, the crazy are defined as such, the sane. Therefore they do not recognize themselves crazy. Now, tell me if it is not totally true that the last part is characteristic and descriptive of the number one salesperson, the one who exceeds the goals.
Normally we call "crazy" any person who is different from the others, who goes outside the norm, and whom we cannot understand.
Change the word "crazy" in this sentence to the word "salesman" and read it again. Now have any clerk in your company read it and ask if they agree with it. You will see that she will answer affirmatively, confirming that the sellers are "crazy".
If you still do not agree, I beg you to give me the reason for now and read the rest of the note, to finally draw your own conclusion.
Let's start by thinking about what it means to be a seller in this part of the world. Unlike other regions of the world, in South America being a seller is a loss of prestige. It is enough to see the sellers' cards and look at the positions they hold to disguise the word seller: Commercial Advisor, Senior Executive, Commercial Executive Assistant, Commercial Representative, etc., etc. They all sound something like Top NASA Business Executive to me. All titles of positions that exist from the company to the outside, because when it comes to paying the commissions in the salary settlement file it simply says, seller.
Be careful not to think that what I am saying is that in your card put seller, I did not do it and I would not, because this is a major problem that does not lie in the decision of the sellers to place difficult charges, but in that many Customers no longer want to hear from salespeople and someone calling themselves a salesperson will lose many customers. What I mean is not to change your card, but to show that the loss of prestige to sales is a social and cultural issue in the region.
Why the professional salesperson is CRAZY about sales:
1. Your madness begins the moment you see a notice at the beginning of your working life that says:
OPPORTUNITY. Sale of services. Permanent training. No previous experience is required. Important company with more than 20 years of experience. Very good remuneration. Excellent commissions for achieving objectives. Interested to appear in…
And he decides to present himself and ignore others who speak of positions such as Assistant Manager or Accounting Assistant or Area Manager or Coordinator or Receptionist, It is because he does not think reasonably or logically but decides for the love of money, for the love of himself, that It leads him to think that he will destroy the goals, and the passion to choose to live a self-reliant life. How would any mother say, "crazy"
2. Once chosen the job of salesman, he proudly tells his affections about his new job in the first family meeting and receives from indifference to advice such as "be careful that they are not going to promise you and after you sold they do not pay you"; "Sales are not a job forever, did you think what to do next?", "Do you like to sell? Yuck! ”; "Do not start harassing us to sell your things" And against all sane forecasts, after receiving a dose of discredit and negative advice, the same, and I would say that even more willingly, he decides to try as a seller, he harasses his family to sell and sell.
Not having heeded those great advice of his affections, and trying only because he feels and believes that he is capable of doing it is because his heart definitely leads in his decisions. A cute Loco! (any aunt would say)
3. Already advanced in sales, with several achievements on his chest and feeling satisfied with the work he does as a salesman, he chooses to advance, train, perfect himself to “be a professional” in an area where there is no university degree that confirms professionalism or university to help organize what you need to know to be; and in which he is never going to be able, no matter how much he deserves it, to compare himself in public with professional lawyers, doctors and architects. Another life decision that borders on madness.
4. Already in his years, being a successful sales professional, earning more than many of his loved ones and family members, being able to sit in an office to do accounts and direct people, even in his own company, he still continues to sell, going to interviews and since he already misses the bosses who pressured him with unattainable objectives, times and goals, he decides to do it himself, pressure himself, demand himself and set very difficult goals.
Only a Fool would do that in the quiet stage of his life.
If you were to ask any professional from another area about a professional salesperson for sure, I would recommend that you refer him to a psychologist. There would be someone who said "This Lord went crazy, when he passed by his office, I heard him shouting: More sales, more veeeentas, more, more, ha ha ha ha ha" with a laugh worthy of a person who went crazy. “We must do something urgent! This person lost his mind ”.
If I were present in that conversation, I would say: “he did not lose his reason, he never had it, he is a seller, he does not recognize words such as NO, PROBLEM, IMPOSSIBLE, EXCUSE, MISSING, DIFFICULT and others that are only negative for him such as ORDER and REPORT. Lose control when you hear phrases like Commission reduction, Out of stock, We won't deliver to your customer on time, I can't, That customer isn't yours. Rain, cold and heat are indifferent to him. Collect more win when it is demanded and gets depressed when all is quiet. Do not be surprised to see him one day in the mood to eat the world and another with the feeling that the world is eating him, he is cyclothymic and no one, no one can motivate him, only he motivates himself. He even thinks about what he does not know, but some of his lies have been the biggest ideas that have been heard in his company.He goes into debt and pawns something in the same way and time that he fills up with money and buys something better. She suffers from claustrophobia and routine panic syndrome. He does not decide logically, he only feels, he only loves, he chooses to be free, depend on himself, fight for his own goals, continually improve himself and above all be happy for what he chooses, despite what they say about his choice.
Of course, the person who would hear me say this, would say "ahhhhh" a madman "and inside me I would think," yes, a madman for sales, a madman fanatic for sales, the protagonist of my training services "
The seller must smile and be motivated despite adversity and the environment, that is, be a little crazy.
Of all the skills that a professional salesperson must have, there is one that is essential to develop in order to face the amount of rejections, challenges and work overload that the sales activity has: The ability to motivate yourself.
For a salesman of these times, in which the newscasts do nothing more than tell you how bad everything is; where clients live worried about their expenses and pressured by their jobs; In which insecurity makes your task much riskier and in which the goals set by your managers are increasingly frustrating, it is very difficult to maintain the smile that all the sales books recommend. But even more difficult for the seller is to find someone who motivates him, who encourages him and who gives him strength. For the aforementioned, the only alternative to achieve success is to know how to motivate yourself and how to mentally program yourself to face any adversity. This is another reason behind my book and my idea of sales madness: To be happy, without external reasons and with the sole impulse to choose to be,you need to be crazy, don't you think?
Try changing the word "crazy" to "salesman" in the following famous phrases and draw your own conclusions
"There is a pleasure in madness that only madmen know." Pablo Neruda
"Fools discover paths that sane men later walk." Groucho marx
"If the madman persists in his madness, he will become wise" William Blake
"Make fun of a madman but also remember that a single moment of lucidity from a madman can generate a wonderful work." Anonymous
"Of the madman is the kingdom of dreams, of the sane is the kingdom of fear." Bersuit Vergarabat
"To be successful in the world, you have to look crazy and be wise." Montesquieu.
