New? Really? Still?

It truly puzzles me that some sales and marketing gurus talk of listening to your customers, speaking from integrity, and coming from service as if these are novel concepts. Any professional sales person who has advanced past the rank of peddler knows that the customer is always in the driver’s seat  (they do write the check , y’know) and that whatever you do that does not serve their highest good is ultimately going to be to your own detriment.

This is not just a truth, it is an old truth, and the best sales training companies have been teaching this for decades. Yea, there are a few charlatans around who try to perpetuate the pressure strategies made infamous by movies like “Boiler Room.”  However, since my first entry into the world of sales training back in – shudder, at my age disclosure – the 1980′s, the best companies have taken the high road. Though each may use somewhat different formulas and models they all tend to focus on understanding the client’s needs, helping them to understand the impact of their own problem, and co-designing a solution that both solves the problem and adequately compensates the solution provider. The only real difference now is that the word gets out faster (for good and bad) and the customer is in a far better position because of the free access to information.

The simple truth is that few professionals, either sales pros or professionals who have to sell, are inclined to the tactics promulgated in earlier times.  People have a gut knowledge that acts done out of integrity will undermine them both as a person and as a professional and that, as the word gets out, their reputation and business will suffer.

And unlike in the time of Harold Hill, The Music Man, it’s getting harder to get out of town to find a new bunch of yokels.

I don’t take issue with the current band of pundits who are promulgating this “new philosopy.” I just wish they’d be a bit less disingenuous about it being new.

Here’s a couple of gems from the conversation:

Bill has never met anyone who is very successful who wasn’t a great giver.

Bill once had the title of “Donut Man.”  When he was a newbie  in insurance he had a scheduled weekly trip to a local medical center with 5 dozen donuts.  He wrote a lot of policies because he became known as “The Donut Man” instead of  “that insurance agent.”