Won’t Do a Podcast on IT Sales Repping/Scumbags

I received the following email from a podcast listener proposing a show where we talk about the sales process and perhaps making a case that IT Sales are not all scumbags:

I have an idea and wondered what you thought of it. Greg is regularly putting down Sales people, and most deserve it, but perhaps you put on a show around “Sales people that don’t suck”? Or “From the Eyes of an Account Manager” or “Why (good) Sales people are necessary” or “So you wanna be in Sales” or something?

We have attempted this in the past. I’ve had discussion with various sales folks across the spectrum on this idea several time.

I’ve come to conclusion that any type of discussion about the ‘sales process’ isn’t good content. The whole topic boils down to “this is what sales thinks they are doing” vs “the actual buying experience ”. The gap between these experiences is just so large that any discussion sounds ends up sounding dishonest, disingenuous or fantastical.

I did IT Sales for a number of years. I have a strong understanding of how the sales process is corrupted by self interest, corporate priorities, compensation/bonuses and plain dumb stuff. You can talk about how you

• care about thhe customer
• help them with the solution
• understand their needs.

All of this is just talk. Sales people are measured on a single metric – dollars sold/invoiced per 3 month period. Business is business. Any and all morals are throw under a bus at the end of every quarter.

There are a few sales people who strive for integrity but the process takes that integrity and drops it into a reality trash can. The real experience of sales execution in Enterprise IT is sad, dysfunctional trauma where buyers remorse sets as soon as the deployment starts. Worse, vendor promises just don’t meet the expectation set during the sale engagement.

Until something changes, I’ll continue to represent the buyers experience because that who our customers are.