THE
SALES LIFEby Todd Natenberg
Editor’s
note: The sales profession attracts people from a lot of different professions,
so Todd Natenberg’s progress from Arizona Republic newspaper reporter
to account representative for telecommunications company LCI International in
Rosemont, Ill., might not be headline news.
But Todd’s account of why he left journalism and what he’s found in
his new profession of sales is a good back-page story, and might just articulate
what many salespeople know about their profession but just haven’t been able
to put into words.
A
lot of people ask me why I left journalism two years ago to pursue a career in
sales. For many, what I used to do
and what I do now are as different as night and day.
One is exciting, offers fame, helps others, and involves special skill
and talent. The other is
pressure-filled, quota-driven, involves endless
rejection, and anybody can do it.
In
fact, there are many similarities between journalists and salespeople.
Both use communication and persuasion, talking to people who often have
no desire to talk to us. Both deal
with rejection
In
fact, I laugh when people ask how I deal with rejection as a salesperson.
“Try being a journalist,” I
say. When someone hangs up on you
on a sales call, the worst that can happen is you lose the deal, maybe get
upset, and evaluate what you could have done differently.
Unfortunately, journalists can’t write stories filled with “no
comments.”
In
some people’s eyes, journalists are even lower forms of humans than
salespeople. At least with
salespeople, customers know there are commissions involved, and they have a
vested interest. Though people
think journalists really care about their subjects, sometimes, in fact, they
only care about the “story.”
Journalists
are without a doubt the most cynical people I have ever met.
How could they not be? People
lied to me constantly, I received few financial rewards, and when what I wrote
exposed a truth that someone didn’t want to hear, more often than not I was
ostracized for it.
In
sales, yes, people lie to us. They
use us for leverage with rates, don’t return calls, and attack us personally
when they’re having a bad day. They
see us as trying to make a buck at whatever price, and we view them as trying to
get the best deal they can – with no regard for us as individuals.
What’s the difference?
Salespeople
don’t realize what a profession like journalism “lacks” and what a
profession like sales offers. My
salary as a 24-year-old reporter was terrific but would not change much over the
years. The sky’s the limit in
sales. Leaving journalism was
the best move I ever made.
People
can say what they want about salespeople - that we would sacrifice our family or
friends if it meant top commissions. But
there is another side to salespeople that few truly see.
Call me naïve, but the top salespeople in my office are among the most
genuine individuals I have ever met. That
doesn’t mean we’re all close friends, or even that there aren’t those
individuals who might show more than one face.
What
it means is that the same positive attitude and confidence – even cockiness -
they have in business dealings they have in their personal lives.
Top salespeople don’t let little things get to them.
They see their jobs as part of a larger picture – with all the peaks
and valleys. They ride the highs
and survive the lows, seeing them
as bringing them one step closer to the highs.
Whenever
I’m down, and think all my work is for naught,
I think of the stonecutter who spends his whole life chipping away at a
stone that does not so much as crack. Then
one day he taps the stone with the hammer and it shatters.
But he must realize that were it not for the first five million whacks,
the stone would never have broken.
I
like to think I made a difference as a journalist – having the ability and
talent to write is a gift. But I
also realize that the way I convinced people to talk to me as a
journalist is the same way I do it as a salesperson – by building
trust. If there is no trust, the
interview won’t get started, the story might not be written, and the “deal”
just might not close.
People
talk about the need to respect others and be respected in journalism,
I had to find respect within myself – by believing in what I was doing
– because no one else was going to offer it on a regular basis.
But
in sales I’ve found – if you’re good – respect follows you wherever you
go. You win Honda passports,
trophies, your name appears in lights, and you win trips, not to mention reaping
some major financial rewards.
All this for telling somebody why one
long-distance/local provider is better than another.
To me, that’s exciting.
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