Myths about selling

Discuss the following myths about selling:

• Salespeople rip people off

I think that people feel this way as a matter of fact. They feel that sales people are on commission and also are always there to sell them things whether they need it or not. This would suggest that people are being ripped off and they are losing out on their money just so that the salesperson can make their money no matter the cost to the sales person. While it is true that in some ways there are sales people that need to sell in order to make money, at the end of the day the modern age has business ethics and transparency that makes ripping people off a little more rare. People have a lot of information and also many sales people and positions are in no way making commission on the sales they are making anyway.

• Salespeople are born, not made

I can see why it would appear to be a talent for people to sell. Some people seem to be better at it and just perform in an excellent manner. However, I think they are actually thinking that the person has the confidence and the characteristics needed to be comfortable selling. So really anyone who can be trained and taught about these things can also become an excellent salesperson.

• Selling is just a big bag of tricks

Again, I think this goes hand in hand with the belief that in the older days the people who sold things were snake oil salesman and they were only out there to make a buck and that was it. This may have been true in the past but I think the present has a lot of accountability and in this accountability there is a lot of scrutiny on products and companies that are attempting to trick people. Yet it seems natural for others to just assume that this is what all sales happens to be.

• A salesperson should never take no for an answer

I have heard this and I have seen people trained like this. I have seen it in medical situations like a dentists office as well as in other more traditional sales situations. I think that there is a point where there is a no and that is it so this is of course a myth otherwise no sales calls would ever end.

• A good salesperson can sell anything to anybody

Again not true. It sounds nice, but in reality there are just going to be things people do not need across the board and this is a reality. So for there to be a belief that you can sell anyone anything is just not true.