Why sales is still the elephant in the room

Have you noticed that nearly everyone you meet from chief executives 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.

Sales is still the “elephant in the room” in most board rooms and executive teams today. 

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 chief executives, leaders, and boards are avoiding the elephant in the room: Sales.  

Instead treating selling like a dirty task done by others over there; chief executives, 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 creates opportunity to unite customers and suppliers.
* Selling is everybody’s business and everybody lives by selling something.

We encourage you to unveil the elephant in the room and realise that selling is nothing to be afraid of.

We encourage you to make selling a conscious cornerstone of your business success.

We encourage you to discuss selling and sales culture with your senior management team and then cascade this up and down your business.

Finally, we encourage you, no, we implore you to treat selling as a profession underpinned by a purposeful system, not a task or after thought.

If you want more information about sales strategy, sales process mapping and sales culture transformation for your business please contact us on (+61) 3 9533 0000 or contact@barrett.com.au   

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au 

Sue is a Selling Better Strategist & Advisor, Sales Philosopher & Speaker, Sales Trainer & Coach, Writer & Activist. Sue is CEO of forward thinking sales advisory, Barrett and online sales education & resource platform www.salesessentials.com. Barrett develops sales strategies, standards and education that help people and businesses sell better.