Envision the following scene:
It is a bright and sunny spring morning. The kids are scurrying around the house getting ready to head to school. Today is a big day, it is career day. I remember these days from the times I was just a little boy all the way through college. In the early days, things are simple.
Children are modeling what they are learning about their environment. They want to be a Fireman because he gets to drive a very cool red truck that makes lots of noise. They want to be a doctor because, well doctors make you feel better when the tummy is acting up. And, of course, they want to be Batman, Diego, Dora or Nemo.
As we move up through the years and into high school, our parents start to put pressure on us to start narrowing down the infinite number of career choices and sadly we realize that the Batman idea is probably out. We realize that firemen who do get to drive a cool loud red truck and help people also have to run into burning buildings. Still viable but, not quite the same super cool spiffy thing it was when we were three.
Now our career days have college recruiting, vocational schools as well as local employers like department stores (Wallmart), construction companies, service companies (Hotels, Restaurants) and many other local businesses.
This type of thing continues on though college. Granted, if you have targeted your degree and expertise through college like as a Dentist you have pretty much picked your pony.
With over 22M working sales people in the United States. How is it that there are no degrees in the sales profession? Certainly there are experts abound and volumes of books written on the subject. But it is just odd (to me) that for such a gigantic profession, sales receives so little attention from higher education.
It does not stop there! Time and again, we work with companies who do little or no training for their sales people. In fact, even the most successful companies in the world may only provide a single training for a sales employee in a given year. This training is usually not on sales skills but focuses on new products and services. A lousey sales person can have all the product knowledge on the planet and will still not execute profitably.
Your sales people are the face of your organization. They are the hands that take the money whether it is a double-tall non-fat no-whip mocha or a $15M Turbine engine. Every interaction with a prospect or customer is valuable.
How does your company measure up? Are you serious about how you are perceived in the marketplace? Do you invest in your sales people or do you see them as necessary evils to doing business?
