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Sales is still the elephant in the room

Sales, anyone?

Have you noticed that nearly everyone you meet from CEOs and leaders to professionals services firms, not-for-profits and universities, to the people in the street want to do anything but actually sell and talk about sales?

Many of them will tell you that they want to grow their businesses, deliver better revenue and profits, drive better customer experiences, be taken more seriously by their clients, build better relationships, attract more customers, etc.

To achieve these things they will tell you they are trying out some special apps, social media strategies, CRM systems, developing their leadership styles, EQ assessments, agile work environments, flexible work spaces, culture transformations, new marketing ideas, or some other silver bullet that promises an enhanced customer experience and all of the above if you only…  

Yet, the one system that will drive better growth, profits, customer experiences, a healthy bottom line and so on is being avoided.

The elephant in the room

Sales is still the ‘elephant in the room’ in most board rooms and executive teams today. If you don’t know what an elephant in the room is, it’s a major problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but is avoided as a subject for discussion.

Like an unhealthy person who relies on fad diets and quick fixes to try to get healthy only to fail time and time again, too many CEOs, leaders, and boards are avoiding the elephant in the room – Sales. 

Instead treating selling like a dirty task done by others over there; CEOs, leaders, and boards need to embrace selling as a skilful profession and embed it as a purposeful sales system and ethos into their organisations.

The truth is:

  • Selling is how we realise opportunity.
  • Selling is the oxygen that fuels the fire of growth.
  • Selling is how we personally connect and engage with clients.
  • Selling involves the application of vital communication skills that are relevant to everyone.
  • Selling is what brings the customer experience to life, good or bad.
  • Selling is everybody’s business and everybody lives by selling something.

Unveil the elephant in the room and realise that selling is nothing to be afraid of.

Finally, we implore you to treat selling as a profession underpinned by a purposeful system, not a task or after thought.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.salesessentials.com 

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