My friend, John, used to sell photocopiers back in the 90s. Downtown Chicago. A good introduction to sales, but kinda brutal, occasionally stupid, and almost always a waste of time…
John: One morning, like just about every morning, me and about 5 or 6 other copier reps who worked the same zip code, were riding the elevators in our big-shouldered, double-breasted, dark suits. Going from floor to floor in the Nuveen Building on Wacker, dropping off and picking up business cards from office managers…all in an attempt to hit our daily “prospecting” quotas.
And this day’s morning prospecting ended like several others as well.
‘Hey Copier Boy! Hold it right there!’
I smiled and stopped. Not turning around. Just shuffling the glossy white cards through my fingers and slumping my shoulders in defeat. I knew what was next.
‘How many times have I told you this is a no-soliciting building? This is your last warning! Next time I’m calling the police.’
Then, the security guard and I rode the down elevator together…and he walked me to the revolving glass door…and made sure I kept walking down Franklin a ways before he returned to the Sun Times he was always flipping through at his post. I knew he’d never call the police. I wasn’t really worth that kind of trouble. But I played along. He had to act his part and I had to act mine.”
Why did John need to hit a “prospecting” number? Because his sales manager demanded it. Did his manager ever look at any of those business cards? Nope. Did any of those thousands of prospecting calls ever result in a sale? In over 5 years, exactly 2.
A complete and utter waste of time predicated on the calcified sales philosophy that “you just gotta work the numbers.”
As you know, sales IS a numbers game, but not THAT sort of numbers game. Sales, like just about everything else important in business, is an 80/20 numbers game. And going from floor to floor, annoying receptionists and security guards, in order to collect a massive pool of worthless prospects is the opposite of 80/20.
It was energy-draining. A wild goose chase. It was physically demanding. And, most dispiriting of all, it was DISHONEST.
John: I wasn’t lying to the customer about anything, I was lying to MYSELF. I knew, deep down, that it was a total waste of time, but I did it because it was the “system”. It was the machine I had allowed myself to become a cog within…
‘OK, Mr. Sales Manager, I’ll play your little game. We both know it’s ridiculous, but my job depends on my playing and so does yours, so let’s just smile and grit our teeth and get through it. And I’ll make my sales in spite of the system, rather than because of it.’
Ick. Selling out a piece of your true identity for a flawed system.
If you’ve ever been in any sort of direct sales, sales requiring phone calls or face-to-face selling, you probably have stories where you’ve felt dishonest. I don’t mean you’ve been manipulative, deceitful, or lied to get a sale. I mean dishonest to YOURSELF. Done things where you’ve thought, “This just isn’t me”. Shuddered with that icky, unclean feeling. Heard the little angel on your right shoulder whisper, “I think we just lost a little piece of our real self there.”
*Have you chased down the same “smoking hot lead” day after day, week after week, leaving voice mail after voice mail, in a vain effort to “follow up”…thinking to yourself, “I’m not REALLY this annoying”?
*Have you memorized cheesy “closing techniques”, thinking “That doesn’t sound anything like me”?
*Have you read from “phone scripts” that made you cringe and mutter, “No wonder they don’t trust me…I would never say that in real life.”
*Do you tell yourself that since they’re calling you on the phone from your website, you’re positioned as ‘The Expert’ … but deep down you feel they STILL don’t trust you?”
*Does your website say things you frankly would never say out loud to a real human being, especially your friends?
*Have you recommended a product or service mainly because it was on special or paid you a higher commission, NOT because it was the perfect fit for the customer?
*Have you rolled out of bed and groaned “Gotta put on my ‘sales armor’ to protect the inner me from the onslaught of rejection that’s charging my way”?
If so, I’d like to hear about it. Comment below to tell me what aspect of direct sales makes you feel most dishonest. Horror stories welcome.
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
20 Comments on “Have You Ever Thought "This Just Isn't Me"?”
The answer to the famous question…Sell This Pen….is…find someone that wants to buy a pen. People spend money every day to purchase something they want, and maybe they didn’t know they wanted it. If you want to be successful in sales talk to people that want to buy your shit.
My sweet naive husband is still working at a place like this. They give him cheap trophies and awards proclaiming what a swell sales person he is, and then raise his quota higher.
Thanks for the awesome article Perry as usual. My comment is not that much about your post but rather something that i started a few months back. I mention that i was following my heart and build a site. Well i did and I have also created a facebook page for it.
My site is called hotellico.com, you might remember it, and i have also changed the homepage.
I have also added a blog to it where daily post is been added daily.
So far, i have made zero dollars but thats not bothering me too much. The fact that i am up against big guys like expedia, hotels dot com, kayak and so on, i have to put the work in to compete.
You can also follow hotellico on twitter. I see this as baby steps to a greater goal. The facebook page for hotellico is http://facebook.com/hotellico.
I hope you don’t see this as spam but rather another fan who is following his heart to the end.
Fundraising for an overpriced, underdelivered service for kids was worse than any product sales I’ve ever done. Asking someone to give $50,000 or $1M for an idea I had absolutely no passion for was horrific.
And I was “good” at it. Worse, it was for a nominally Christian service. Lunatic rich people (or lunatic people who wanted to be thought of as rich) providing “scholarships” to non-functioning youth programs, with a pitch steeped in Churchianity. I seriously would have been less damned if I had lit myself on fire.
I felt like a zombie, staggering through a job that looked okay, moved according to schedule…and was entirely devoid of human warmth.
I have a decent share of regrets, but the second biggest one in my life is that I sold out for a lie in the name of charity.
Honesty and selling? Being true to yourself and your customers? This just isn’t me?? Really?? Aren’t you paying someone to impersonate you and sign your name, with your blessing?
I had YEARS of hard-core, direct sales experience under my belt and finally realized the error of it and walked away. Some of the stories are fodder for my daily emails and the basis of what I try to teach consulting clients to do. What works best for me since then is the positioning of blogging, tied with regular emails to encourage people to reach out for help. A conversation allows us both to discover if there’s a fit. Thanks for a “eye-opening” post Perry.
Great article.
I’ve certainly been there and got the t shirt from MLM (lets call your too 10 friends and get them signed up – er yeh right) to pointless adverising to cold calling to the numbers game.
The key thing ive learnt is that people generally want a problem solved.
Solve their problem and they’ll be happy and ultimately pay you for it.
Offer them something that doesnt solve a burning desire need or problem and yoy may as well throw pebbles into a stream hoping to hit a fish!
I used to sell suncare products to large retail outlets, water parks, and corporate accounts. Once, had promised to have crew in to set displays in time for Saturday. Unable to get to this particular job until late Friday night. when we showed up, manager on duty was looking embarrassed. The managers had ganged up on the assistant who had given us the order and blocked door to his office with pallet of merchandise. My merchandising team got right on it and had display set shortly after midnight. the assistant went from laughing stock to hero. there was a strong tendency in the industry to promise whatever it took to get the order and then disappear.
Another time my sales manager worked his magic and got an order for several thousand dollars for a store that on its best year had never done more than a few hundred. When I co-ordinated the order with the district department manager I mentioned the discrepancy and the fact that there was not adequate space to place that much product in that venue. I told her that I would be shot if it were ever known what I had just done, and we adjusted order to fit. There was a tendency to place as much product as possible, no matter how inconvenient because it made for significantly higher commissions. I found after a couple years in the territory there was much less resistance to my calls and we were able to maintain a steady growth. But I had to quietly go against company policy and sales manager’s orders.
John’s story describes what students are forced to do every day that they sit in school; play the system just to get to the end of the day. They rarely have an opportunity to do anything fruitful for themselves. This is probably how so many people are lulled into similar situations in the “real world.”
Sales is all about how you can help your prospect. Nobody wants to be sold to UNLESS they are actively seeking your product. To cold call or leave a businsss card for someone to miraculously contact you is archaic. Why salesman still do this is beyond me. Instead of selling someone, ask them what they need help with. “How can I help your business grow, save money, or save time?” Even if you’re selling photocopiers, if you prove to them your copier will save them time or money or help their business grow, then you can have them eating out of your hand. Quit coming across as a desperate salesman who needs to hit his quota. Instead present yourself as someone who actually gives a damn about your prospects.
Well, I was a Mormon missionary for two years… ;)
And when I worked from their script, it did feel really dirty. Later I decided to just speak from my heart. Then things really started to pop.
Perry, nothing made me feel worse than my MLM days when I was encouraged to tell everyone “you can do this”, even though I knew most of them couldn’t. On the day I quit MLM I told my upline that it wasn’t “showing the plan” — it was “spreading the lie”. To this day I regret the whole thing.
My approach to selling is to simply drop off a brochure and say have a good day, and walk out. When they think you need them, you have no posture and you lose their respect.
Thanks for another great post. I’ll read you for as long as you keep writing.
The problem is not with “the system.” Systems are not designed to make people fail, much to the disagreement of those who actually do. The problem is with the person. Yes, it’s true. If it doesn’t feel “right” to you, you shouldn’t be doing it. Period. But I’m so sick and tired of hearing people bashing direct sales. This is a $30 billion dollar industry. If it didn’t work, people wouldn’t do it. There’s not another industry out there that has created more millionaires and six-figure earners and has given ordinary people the opportunity to make $30-, $40-, or $50-grand a month. When you hear people say “This just isn’t me,” they’re right; It’s not. They need to stop immediately. But bashing “systems” (or the industry) is not the way to go. It’s like saying exercise doesn’t work, just because you can’t seem to get rid of that roll of fat around your gut. Exercise works just fine; you just haven’t found the right kind of exercise for your issue.
I’m weary of hearing the mantra that the network marketing industry “has created more millionaires than…” because it’s not true. It’s a 30 billion dollar industry that is no bigger than it was 20 years ago, maybe 30. It has not produced new millionaires, it has merely churned the old ones. It is one of the most unstable industries there is. Want to talk about an industry that HAS created millionaires, and empowered tons of ordinary people? The software industry. Software is a growth industry. MLM is not.
Fantastic post as always Perry.
I would say that not being honest to yourself both in terms of how you sell it and what you sell is the number one reason entrepreneurs fail. At some level, they can’t reconcile that it’s just not them.
If money were completely removed from the equation, would you still sell it at all and in the way you currently offer it to people? Chances are for most people it’s a no.
Perry, I think you have hit the right nail.
Yes, I had these horrific experiences back in my old school MLM days when my upline told me “Everyone is Prospect”
I was amateur and naive plus I had ZERO knowledge of Marketing & Sales, so I did all the things wrong including soliciting complete strangers, dropping business cards at public places hoping someone will notice, I even used to hide my business cards in Local book shops hoping someone would find it and call me.
I even tried Cold calling which I think was Brutal experience of all.
99% of the time I felt I wasn’t being me. I was lying to myself. Inside I knew this is not working for me but still I pursued it. It was a horrific dream, vicious circle. I went on repeating cycle of failure until I discovered Direct Response Marketing, everything changed.
I got rid of those nasty business practices, nasty people who taught me such horrific things and the industry which didn’t quite well resonated with me.
I have read your big RANT on Amway days, my experience is more or less similar.
Would love to hear some more stories from you.
In my MLM days I was working with a nutrition company, one of their bright ideas was to carry a bottle of one of the products with you and shake it back and forth as you went “shopping” in a mall. Customers were supposed to just run up and ask for product (yea right). Never sold anything, felt like an idiot. Except when I am selling or passionate about something I am pretty quiet. Definitely NOT me.
Cold calling has always made me feel uncomfortable. I always believe that i am bothering someone. I am lucky or un lucky depending on how you look at it that i can’t offer anything that won’t benefit the client. I have major advertising challenges with the internet and hi tech in general. I read your 80/20 book and it was way over my head…Currently im still trying to learn direct response marketing, as all the so called experts i have paid well over the last few years didn’t do anything but drain my bank account.
I hate to interrupt some buisiness persons day and try and get them to focus on what Im selling at an inconvenient or inappropriate time for them. Its best to speak to folks who have a problem they need solve but timing is everything. Once past the first call you may have a chance to determine when that time may be and then work from there….I hate interruption marketing calls though….i dont like it done to me….so its inconsistent for me to do it to others….plus the success rate is really low. there has to be a better way to find warm/hot leads in b to b sales.
You bet I’ve been there. I’ve ridden in those elevators and told security guards, gate-keepers, and office managers, “I’m not selling magazine subscriptions or candy bars, and I’m not soliciting. ” Right. And the result of that was what? “Well then, come right on in.” Of course not. Thank goodness I’ve found a way to get people to raise their hands and indicate a level of interest. Occasionally, I even have someone call or email me that wants to give me their credit card number to buy something that I didn’t have to pursue. Copier sales was an invaluable learning experience for me. For one thing, I learned I did NOT want to do that for a living. I’ve tried SPIN selling, Question Based Selling, and everything else under the sun. In the end what works better for me than anything is telling the customer I have a couple questions but before I start asking if there is anything they want to tell me about their project. It might not be THE best way to get them to engage. It seems to work better than the other tactics and techniques I’ve tried.