A Noble Profession
August 10, 2009
Have you ever considered how noble the sales profession is?
That’s right, noble. All material prosperity, all technological progress, all economic stability and growth, are based on sales. Even those spheres of human activity that people think of as being apart from the business world, such as education and charitable endeavors, are dependent on either tax dollars or donations – both of which ultimately derive from sales.
A colleague who is a successful sales professional recently shared with me that a relative of hers is an artist, and looks down on my friend for earning her living in sales. What would the person who sells that artist’s work do without the artist? The obvious answer: sell something else. But what would the artist do with no one to sell her work? She would have only two choices: starve, or become a seller of her own productions. We simply can’t have a functioning economic system without sales.
Since the sales profession is so clearly the engine of all prosperity, why is that some denigrate our craft? Perhaps it is because some people have never gotten past the idea that sales is an inherently manipulative or even dishonest profession. But this need not – should not – be the case. The sales profession consists simply in presenting relevant information in an effective way to help people make good decisions about the use of their resources.
The sales professional who understands and believes this is going to take pride in his craft. He will approach his customers with confidence and respect, and should anticipate receiving that same respect in return. Do your daily interactions with customers reflect the nobility and importance of our profession?
