20/20 SHAME ON YOU

I am writing this post later than I usually do because I had heard that the TV show 20/20 was going to have a “SALESMAN” interview.

Well I am mad, first off they didn’t have a salesman on, they had a retail clerk on. Before any of you start throwing stones at me for differentiating between a salesman and a retail clerk you need to understand what I am talking about.  Mt background, training and training methods are built around a sales rep that either goes out to call on customers or calls customers on the phone. Either way the sales rep is initiating the sale. A retail clerk stays in a store and waits for the customer to come to them. To me one of the hardest things for a sales rep to do is to build interest in their product or service. A retail clerk already knows there is interest, that’s why the customer came into their store in the first place.

OK, I hope that you can now understand my definitions and why I make the distinction.

The clerk that was on 20/20 started about all the underhanded “tricks” he used to MAKE people buy. He was an unscrupulous dirt ball who either played on emotions or out and out lied to customers to get them to buy.

The show also had a car salesman on who talked about tricks he used to get people to sign on the dotted line.

There is no nice way to say it, both of these so called sales people were dishonest crooks and it is people like them that give the average person the negative image they have about sales people.

I want to also say shame on a show like 20/20 for only telling the story of the dirt bags in the industry. They never even made the statement that these were only 2 people and that the majority of sales people were not this dishonest.

I AM MAD!

I am PROUD of my profession and I want everyone to know what I do for a living. When I say I train sales people I don’t want people to think I am the king of dishonesty and teaching sales people how to do all these dirty tricks.

I am today as I have always been a believer in good honest sales technique. I am committed to teaching sales reps the right way to approach a sale. Win or lose a rep that I teach knows that they did the best they could and have nothing to be ashamed of.

I was talking to a friend of mine this morning and I said to him that he needed to feel good about himself. I told him that only 1% of the people of the world could ever be sales reps, and that only 1% of those that are sales reps are good at it and successful. I guess after watching 20/20 this evening I need to add that the 1% that are sales reps less than 1% can be good at it, successful and HONEST!

Lorin