Consider this: You are having an important conversation about the business needs and vital concerns of another professional. But there's the twist, the person you are talking to is standing on scaffolding about three feet above your head. As odd as this may seem it's the exact approach most salespeople take when speaking to a prospect. They shout and jump around trying to get the prospects attention while all along teaching the prospect in no uncertain terms that they are above us. We quite deliberately put them on a pedestal with the hopes that this type of adulation will result in an opportunity to give our almighty "pitch" - Is it any wonder that more often than not this only results in disrespect, avoidance and ultimately a lost prospect with no chance of future business?
So, why do we act like this?
We all know that people like to be treated well and that to be liked and trusted we need to project like-ability and trustworthiness, but at what point does this become pandering and ultimately project as low self-respect? There is a reason the stereotypical salesperson is seen as a glad-handing, phony suck-up only concerned with cashing a check....because that's how most salespeople are taught to act!
Assuming we are selling something that is, to at least some degree, important to our prospects why would they entrust that purchase and their future business with someone so short-sighted and desperate? would it not make sense that they are in fact looking for the opposite; A trusted, secure successful vendor who is at least as concerned with the longevity of their relationship as they are?
Unfortunately its all-too typical to see our fellow salespeople beg for a prospects attention only to then turn around and ask for their trust (money). Have you ever written a check to someone who relentlessly hounded you with seemingly no respect for their time or yours?
I remember a VP of sales I worked for telling a room full of salespeople about how she got a complaint from a prospect that one of her salespeople was calling them incessantly and pitching every weekly sale or special despite their disinterest in buying. Rather than coach the salesperson and correcting their behavior or technique, the VP said with prideful conviction that she congratulated the salesperson!
In her view, constant steady persistence is the only way to sell, or at least that it works. Not only is this a flawed half-measure but it also says something about the way we as a culture envision salespeople. We hate their relentless persistence when they call us but apparently that’s what “they” do, so as salespeople “we” do it – or tell others to. We know we don’t like it, but in a bizarre turn to the illogical we seem to think it works - it doesn't.