Behavior Hurts The Industry

Your opinion is noted Mitch.

Mine is formulated through years of research into the subject of VALUES, my own research to uncover professionals in psychology and trainers who did the same. The best psychologists that did this type of research all concluded that 2nd hand influences are greater than your own it terms of creating your core values. And it is these core values that all others must fit into, that is the nature of us as human beings.

If we could hire a hypnotist Mitch, and you were willing, we might get to why your core value is such about sales people, which is why the training you have imbibed that had so much affect, why it rang true for you. for me, I grew up with a professional sales trainer as a dad, whom I refer to as MySalesDad©, who is arguably the greatest prospector who ever trained sales prospecting. And, as a result, my core value is not the same as yours. Therefore, in my mind, if I read the training book(s) you have, I could not 'hear' a ring of truth with the suggestion that sales people's behaviour is generally not good.

I have made a profession from studying all the greatest trainers and training organizations including; Carnegie, Huthwaite (SPIN), Sandler, Mandini, XLS/ILS (Xerox PSS), J. Douglas Edwards (arguably the greatest sales speaker who ever lived - notice I said SPEAKER), Hopkins, Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Sales Dogs), Peter Burke (MySalesDad) and others, and I find none that teaches pushy behaviour ... not a one. These are all very professional outfits/trainers with outstanding research behind them that literally blows away the - excuse my French - crap that is selling online in terms of professionalism (or almost all of it).

And that can be discounted (what I wrote or who I quote) from here to the end of time, but we are missing the point. Your (this is personal to you Mitch) core value was what it is before you were aware. And, even though you are one ( a sales person), it is my belief that you need to see yourself as different from me for instance to make it ... and I know I will not be able to find an effective word for the end of this sentence ... alright. No matter your reply. If you are brutally honest in this regard you may see what I am saying in a way that is not offensive and just valid.

Your core value is what made you susceptible to a style of writing. You and many others. And, similar to the book mentioned in the other thread, this has lead you to a new VALUE, one that is your own, not the authors. It resonates with your very being. To say that it is wrong and trying to prove it to you is liking denying your very existence. Because this attached - it is connected at the core of you, Mitch.

I am not a psychologist but I understand. And, while I would love to help you improve as a salesperson and, like many others, I could help you with that, beleive me. I am more concerned with those who have not reached the VALUE you have - far more concerned. Now, I have locked horns in several threads with you in the last 5 weeks since I came on this site for the first time. And I note that you are currently the third largest contributor on this forum, after the owner of it and one other.

As a person who is that prevalent in a site that is top ranked on Google and Yahoo, what you say here is being located online in searches for information about sales. These very words you are reading right now can be searched at any major search engine about three weeks from now and they will come up, leading people to this thread and the many others you have posted in.

Now, if you get the impact of what I am saying you see why I write for the best of the industry. Not saying I can't make you a better sales person if you are open to that, i can, that is certain. And the reason why I am so sure is I have read your threads for weeks. And I know, even though you are one of the most prevalent people here, passing out advice daily, you are far from one of the most experienced people that travels to see this site daily and either does or does not sign up.

The implications of what happens in salespractice.com are massive. They are potentially greater than the books we are talking about or even the poorly trained sales people because we have the potential here to reach the largest sales audience in the world. Read that last sentence again. If you are not sure of its validity you can start a new thread and I will prove it easily.

Out there, in the sales world, there are literally thousands of true professionals. Not slick, poorly trained people who try to sell things to people that do not need it or piss of prospects because of their lousy behavior but the complete opposite. Some are better than me, though not many.

We need them to see this site and its potential. Because they will come and train here for FREE!

This freebie service will then attract more sales people and this site will become one of the most important sites in the history of our profession. That is what is at stake!

Mitch, you need them too. Like many others you have the chance to become a real pros in our profession. And these people can help you. But in order to do that we need you and people like you to open up just a wee bit. To see that there really are those who could help you. To realize for yourself that your core values stand in the way of your very development, at least for now.

Like a teenager rebels against their parents for a time, you rebel against the best training in the world and the best trainers, because that training is lumped in with the poor training, not because it is poor, but because you have been told so in a way that resonated with what you already accept as true (valid for your logical readers). Because these things are connected to your core values.

Have you heard J. Douglas Edwards? If you buy "Back to the future with sales" from Tom Hopkins organization the first of 6 or 7 DC's in this disc set alone will change who you are. And there is NO sales training on that first disk, only a few comments about how you ought to dress, the rest is all about VALUES. And some of that has been tailored to Network Marketing, which is the industry you sell in.

And, by the way, I am the Editor of Network Marketing News, newsletter than had 40+ thousand online e-zine readers before the book Permission Marketing was even published!

It is tough with someone like you Mitch. We want to validate your participation here but it does not take long to realize your level of understanding of our great profession is closer to green than that of some of the highly experienced, amazing professionals we could get to participate here. People who, if you saw them work, would amaze you at how they get along with people and how they almost never leave having caused a poor experience for themselves or the prospect/client.

There is so much more I could say. And I feel I have to say a little more to get back on point.

Skip shared that few people are truly guarded in sales situations, this is my experience as well. It is also the experience of sales research organizations, like XLS (now no more) and Huthwaite. The later has done 36,000 live sales calls ... they actually sent a research person on that many calls to record what happened, these people and others can tell you what happens in sales calls and whether your opinions are valid or invalid. They validate what is and is not in sales.

Of course, if you sold tires at a tire shop in the bad end of a town in large metropolis, you would have experiences more often with guarded, rough type buyers ... so, without doubt, this is a relative observation.

This inclusion by me of a certain trainers information, specifically Huthwaite, does not say that I am a complete follower of SPIN school. One way or another, whether I am or I'm not, that is truly irrelevant, what is interesting is the research, not the (and forgive me this silly pun) SPIN they put on it. How we take it in and adjust our VALUES ....... !

Since Xerox and Huthwaite are the only organizations in the last 50 years that I am aware of who have done anything even close to this large a study of sales (and Huthwaite was hired by Xerox amongst others!), their research should be taken note of. We need to learn from it, to adjust our own values as may be required. This is valid as a statement whether or not you adopt their school of sales training and sales systems.

Yes, Mitch, do our opinions about sales ever differ.

One thing is certain, regardless of the extent of the damage by poorly trained sales people, it is very damaging. That is why, after sales itself, sales training to me it the 2nd best profession to be involved with. Having stated that, there are at least as many authors and speakers percentage wise who misuse the opportunity to influence positively as there are sales people of the whole who blow their opportunity to leave a lasting good impression instead of the opposite.

To me, there is little difference between pushy or slick sales behaviour as there is between using titles that are a blasphemy of what we do as a profession.

If you read all of the above and discard it out of hand Mitch, then it will have been because of your core values. If you see the writings of one who both can write in a way that most will understand and is far more experienced than are you, as being mostly opinionated, and of little value, then this website probably is not a place for you. By that I mean there is little for you to gain from being here. And probably not that much for others to benefit from you either.

We are creating the greatest sales site that will ever be - this is the very best place for getting sales information. The best sources and trainers will be here going forward and some of the values you have today will change, some slightly some more so unless you allow the ones you have to stop that fantastic process from happening.

That's it for me, my work on this thread is history.

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