Sales has a bad reputation for sure. The stereotypical used-car salesperson often comes to mind. You can picture the greasy hair, the manipulative smile, and the shirt collar that’s way too big.
Or, perhaps the aggressive sales tactics depicted in the 1992 film, Glengarry Glen Ross put it over the top for you. The pressure to always be closing didn’t sit right in your soul.
But there’s something else – something more fundamental. Your negative feelings about sales can likely be traced to a contrast with your core values.
When sales is depicted as pressuring, pushing, or manipulating people, you immediately recognize that’s not who you are. The technical term for this is cognitive dissonance.
That is, you are not comfortable doing things that are at odds with who you are.
It’s no wonder selling may not feel great.
I don’t blame you.
You would never want those stereotypical things to be associated with you and who you are as a human being. So it makes a lot of sense that you’d be reluctant to engage in anything like that.
This is a good thing.
Professional selling is about helping people. Period.
And helping people feels good.
If something in sales doesn’t feel right in your gut, it’s because it probably goes against your innate sense that this isn’t how human beings are meant to be treated.
Listen to your gut. And find a way to be helpful.