In real life people like to take a neutral stance when it comes to salespeople. Some they don’t trust, others they don’t like, and some they actually want to do business with. The type of salesperson that gets people to trust them is one that keeps their word more often than not and isn’t too pushy when trying to close a deal. Hollywood on the other hand likes to show a side of the average salesperson that is anything but nice and is always out for the BBD, the bigger better deal. These people are always hustling and always ready to trade their grandmothers if need be to make the ideal sale and line their pockets with large denominations. The problem is that Hollywood salespeople aren’t that realistic.
Here are just a few of the lies that Hollywood likes to tell in regards to salespeople.
5. Customers are dollar signs.
In Hollywood the average salesperson could probably be shown with the comical dollar signs over their eyes every time they meet a prospective client/sale. In reality the salesperson might still see profit, but most of them are wise enough to know that if you treat your customer as another paycheck the odds are that they will pick up on it fairly quickly and won’t consider doing business with them in the future. People want to be seen as people, and the wise salesperson knows this.
4. Honesty is overrated.
It’s easy to find a movie where the most dishonest salesperson gets the greatest amount of business and has the most fun with the money that comes as a result. The trouble with this in reality is that if you’re trying to reach the maximum amount of customers it only takes one to get the ball rolling with the rumor that you might be less than honest in your dealings. After that your reputation takes a nose dive that a lot of people can’t recover from.
3. Ruthlessness is a virtue.
The nice guy finishes last in movies quite a bit, but at least the nice guy can hold their heads up at the end of the film. In real life this isn’t always the case. Ruthlessness can make you reckless and turn people off to the degree that you never get another client, thereby ruining your business. However, those that are ruthless and present a friendly facade are often those that go a lot further.
2. The customer is a moron.
Watch any Hollywood film about salespeople and you’ll see the general attitude of disillusionment that paints the client or customer as a complete sap that’s willing to believe at least half if not more of what they’re being told. Now compare that to reality and it might not seem too different. In truth, the customer is not a moron, but a great many of them are far more educated in how to spot sham salespeople than not.
1. The salesman is a genius.
If salespeople were really as slick as they were in Hollywood films you’d see a lot more of them in the top 50 list of Forbes’ richest people. The truth is that they’re human just like anyone and will make mistakes. What differentiates a salesperson from their customer is the wealth of education and tricks they learn to employ when trying to ply their trade and how they go about getting people to trust them.
It’s not hard to see why salespeople get a bad reputation. They have to hustle and make large sums of money seem like a pittance against what they’re selling. But really, honestly, they’re not all that bad.
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