The Death of the Word "Salesman"

At the recent principal's meeting of TCN Worldwide in Denver, Paul Lewis a successful executive recruiter, spoke to the group about how to maintain or grow our top producers. He started out by saying that although we have earmarked one and one half hours of time for this subject he was going to keep it short. He said the heart of maintaining or growing top producers is simply this - if they are having a bad day, not closing deals etc... simply look them in the eye and say "pick up the phone and call someone" go sell.

We went on to discuss topics such as the lost art of cold calling. No one seems to be doing it anymore. The lost art of truly serving your client, no one seems to be doing that either.  All of the above used to be called being a "salesman". Today no one even puts the word salesman on a business card. The word has now been replaced by Director, Associate or even Vice-President. The best one to date is "Team Coordinator".

Paul asked the group a very interesting question. How many of us were first generation born or new immigrants to this country? He also asked how many of us had fathers that were salesmen that used to take us to work? Ross Ford, President of TCN, recalled that when he was four or five years old, his Dad was an executive with the Galbrieth Company, and used to take him and his brother to social events and taught them how to shake hands and present themselves to adults.

I recall every summer going with my Dad and watching him sell. On one very important occasion, I witnessed something that to this day is the foundation of how I personally sell. My Dad was in the food service business and visited a client very early one morning. The owner told him that he was now ready to switch vendors and buy from my Dad. Just as he was about ready to sign up the order, a call came in from this client's customer of a major problem involving equipment that stopped working.  All of this client's mechanics were out and not available. My Dad, as he had done many times before, offered to go to see if he could help fix the problem. We left and spent the next five hours fixing the problem.

When my Dad returned, the client thanked him. When my Dad asked about the order the client indicated  "Oh so sorry Hans but the current vendor stopped by while you were gone and I was in a hurry so I placed one more order with him." At that point I was sure that my Dad was going to "hit him". Instead, with a smile he said no problem we will catch you the next time and walked out. I asked him how could you allow him to do that Dad, and he said, "Son, a salesman has to be patient, If you go the extra mile with service, keep smiling and tell a few stories to entertain your client eventually they will buy from you".

I have never been ashamed to say I am a salesman.