Even sales people dislike sales people..that's why

Today on the telephone a candidate said something that's probably been said a gazillion times: I don't necessarily hate salespeople but I really don't understand why they're here. He wasn't being impolite (given that a large part of my job is sales) he was just telling me matter of factly that in his view, a reasonably good technician - someone who's a do-er - should be good enough to get the sales done without the need of a dedicated person whose job it is to promote a good or service. I had a private answer at the time but it really wasn't necessary to share it at the time. But I've thought more about it and have an even better answer: even a lot of sales people dislike or don't see the need for sales people, which is precisely why we need dedicated sales people. Eww, ahhh, not to sound prophetic but it's true. Imagine a sales person saying, I know how to do that job, just let me make a few more calls and then I'll hurry up and install that database, or fix that gadget, or do your taxes...you name it. People are in love with whatever means they happen to be using at almost any given time. Sales-trainers say it all the time: your number one competitor isn't the other company in your industry that's eating up your market share. Your number one competitor is the status-quo. Whatever is demanding the time of the potential buyer is your competition; whatever your prospect is currently doing as an alternative to using your solution is your competition. If there isn't someone who's knocking at the door offering a better/cheaper/faster way of doing whatever it is that you're doing, then someone else will. Such is the life of the person in the influence business - for every available second that you're not out selling, you're leaving the door wide open for the competition to more deeply entrench its self, OR for the competition to drop on by just to say hello and see how things have been going. That's one of the reasons why I dislike sales people - just when things seem to be going well, and I've become the status-quo, some pesky sales person comes along and tries to encroach on my territory. HOW DARE THEY!!! I deplore, as I'm busy encroaching on some unsuspecting sales person's prized status-quo.

Good discussions are a performance art

I spend quite a bit of time on the phone. I call perfect strangers, introduce myself to them, and the attempt to gain enough rapport that they will listen and engage in a meaningful career discussion with me. It's a cold call. I've made enough failed calls and enough successful ones that I'm kind of good at them. I can typically have more calls go in a positive direction than I can in a not-positive direction.
Early On
At first I thought it was mostly luck (or lucky timing) that was the primary factor determining whether or not a call would go well. I ran with this notion for quite a while. My odds came out at the fifty-fifty mark. Eventually I gained more confidence (as it was a little lean in the beginning) and I got a little better odds.
Break-through one
As written in an earlier post, I discovered that there are narrative patterns that can be used to project information in a way that is very harmonious with a listener's existing thinking. Tell a good story that is formed a specific way and operates within prescribed boundaries and the people on the receiving end will tune in more deeply and will also resist the desire to return to their pesky TO-DO list.
Break-through two
Linguistic patterns are easily observable and easily employable. Just pay close attention to the predicates that people use. The predicates are indicative to how a person engages the world.
Break-through three - happening at this moment
Discussions are a performance art. George Clooney, for all his political blabber, is astonishing at delivering his lines. Just listen to HOW he says the things he says. His tone, his meter, his pitch and inflection - they all combine to make listening to him seem that much more entertaining. I've gotten in the habit of leaving myself voice mails from time to time so that I can hear how I sound. I'm considereing buying a digital recorder so that I can occasionally record myself and practive at delivery. It's a performance art and practice makes perfect.