Are You Sales Averse?

Posted by ianbrodie under Sales
From http://www.ianbrodie.com 5581 days ago

Let's face it: professionals hate selling.

Consultants hate selling. Architects and surveyors hate selling. Accountants hate selling. And lawyers: lawyers really hate selling.

And we don't just hate the act of selling. Many of us hate the entire concept of selling. We feel it's beneath us. It's demeaning. We're experts in our field — we shouldn't need to sell.

Most professional firms can't even bring themselves to call it selling. It's business development or client relations. Not selling.

20 years ago — 10 years ago even - that wouldn't have mattered. Most professionals got enough repeat business and referrals to "keep them busy". Competition was gentlemanly, and clients stuck with the professionals they'd always used.

Nowadays most professions face significant overcapacity, aggressive competition and promiscuous clients who've learned to shop around and test the market.

It's no longer enough for professionals to do great work and expect that clients will hear about them via word of mouth.