The Death of the Sales Professional

“During Hurricanes, Roosters Think They Can Fly”


It has been reported in several sales-related publications, that somewhere between 60 to 65% of the people in sales, do not belong in sales. Over half of the people with the word "sales" in their title do not have the skills, aptitude or attitude to be an effective sales person. To many this comes as no great shock.

Years ago if you went into sales for a powerhouse sales-centric company like NCR or IBM, it would be 6, 12, even 18 months before you were allowed to speak to prospective client. You weren't ready. You hadn't had enough training and mentoring and you were not ready to present the value of the company in its best light. I have met many veterans from these training programs and their skills are amazing. A large percentage of the alumni went on to start other successful companies.

Well those days are now a distant memories, the thought of keeping a sales person (regardless of their skill set) out of the game for more than a few days is unthinkable. Someone figured out that it was far more cheap to hire as many salespeople as you can, throw them in the fire immediately, those that were good would rise to the top, those who stunk, you would cut loose in a few quarters, and the mediocre would be just that, mediocre. If you hired more good people, the mediocre would sink and you cut them loose, if you hired less qualified people, your mediocre would actually rise in the ranks. There are numerous companies out there that always are looking for sales people, because every quarter their bottom 10% performers are removed from the companies.

Abnormal market conditions can make mediocre, or even poor, salespeople think they are great. During the telecom days of the Internet bubble, if you sold for a telecom company you did great. Clients were lapping up everything that you could throw at them. There was little to no selling involved, it was order taking. Telecom sales people, fueled by huge commissions on huge deals to sound companies like flake.com, a breakfast cereal portal that never really took off, were spending and living large.

When flake.com and their dotcom cohorts where unable to buy anymore telecom equipment, guys who thought they were the best sales people in the world started to struggle. A personal measurement is I judge the effectiveness of a salesperson by their past 12 months results. If I have to make a spot evaluation I look at how quickly they go to the freebies. If you have one call with a vendor and the next day there's a logo'd Tshirt in your inbox, you are dealing with a moron.

The message here is when you come across a good salesperson, someone who understands your business, what you are trying to accomplish, and how their offering helps you achieve their goals, treat them with the respect that you would expect in return.