Has American Business Forgotten How to Sell?

“American business has just forgotten the importance of selling.” - Barry Goldwater

Have we forgotten how to sell?

We're awash with brand new sales tools that promise to painlessly remedy one sales shortcoming or another.

The same with shortcuts, or hacks, that promise an easier path to success.

To some people the holy grail would be automating everything and removing sellers as much as possible from the equation.

Like so many things in our American lives, we are attracted to the easy fix. Sales is no different.

Don’t want to prospect? There’s an app for that.

If I were a younger person, I might be tempted to go on a rant about how you’re truly deluding yourself if you think that the basics of selling have fundamentally changed.

I could go on at length about how every thing you do in sales will be negatively impacted if you don’t constantly invest time and effort in mastering the basics of your sales craft.

I could deliver a lengthy diatribe about why you’re consigning your career to second class status if don’t get serious about continually developing your business acumen to deliver value to your buyers.

Instead, I’m going to relax. Because time is on my side.

I’ve lived through multiple technological revolutions in my career that have transformed the process of selling.

Time and experience have proven that I’m absolutely right.

The basics in sales haven’t changed.

There are no shortcuts in sales.

And there will be no shortcuts in sales.

It’s always going to be about people.

Sales tech can help connect you TO a buyer.

It can't help you connect WITH a buyer.

Sales is not something you do TO a buyer.

It’s something you do WITH a buyer.

Think of sales technologies like dating apps.

They help facilitate the opportunity to connect with another human.

However, they can’t build that special relationship for you.

They can’t show you how to be human.

They don’t teach you how to ask great questions.

Or how to listen slowly to the answers. Or deliver value.

When you finally have the opportunity to talk to a buyer, sales tech can’t make you interesting to them.

Only you can do that.

- Andy Paul