1.3 Debunking Salesperson Stereotypes
What do you think of selling and salespeople? How do you feel about selling? If your responses to these questions are not all positive, warm, and fuzzy, it is likely because you have had negative experiences with sellers or have felt uncomfortable with the idea or with past experiences of selling to others. There are perhaps few professions that have more negative stereotypes associated with them than that of personal selling. It has only been within the last few decades that colleges and universities have adopted formal sales education and training (and there are still many higher education institutions that have not adopted sales or that are in the early stages of incorporating this discipline into programs of study).
Prior to this, and even still, most people believed that the success of a salesperson was more natural or innate versus something that could be developed and learned. Hollywood and the media have promulgated these stereotypes by portraying salespeople as fast-talking, greasy, manipulative, and repulsive human beings. A favorite example in the United States and abroad is the television sitcom The Office. The show portrays different personalities and selling styles in the fictitious industrial paper company Dunder Mifflin. While this portrayal and others can be humorous and entertaining, the “salesman” myth (used here for emphasis as this is a common descriptor used to depict myths surrounding sales; however, this term neglects to include women in professional selling and sales) undermines the high and noble profession and skill of sales. Some of the commonly held stereotypes include the following:
Selling is a job, not a profession or a career.
Salespeople must lie and be deceitful to succeed.
Sales brings out the worst in people.
To be a good salesperson, you have to be psychologically maladjusted.
A person must be arrogant and overbearing to succeed in selling.
Salespeople lead a degrading and disgusting life because they must be pretending all the time.
The personal relations involved in selling are repulsive.
However, if you investigate further the actual profession of sales and the diverse roles of sellers in today’s business world, you will find that these individuals identify with the many positive aspects of their role as salespeople, including:
Earning compensation based on performance
Working for companies that have a great professional image
Performing a variety of tasks
Being independent
Interacting with educated coworkers
Making a contribution to society
Experiencing daily challenges
Feeling a sense of accomplishment
Having job security
Working in a complex and nonroutine job