Selling Is Sleazy - Or Is It?

You say sell and people think sleazy. 

They picture Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman or Herb Tarlek of WKRP in Cincinnati. They remember Alec Baldwin's classic performance in GlenGarry Glen Ross. They think used car salesmen in plaid pants and a mismatched tie attempting to sell them a lemon.

And if they are not old enough to remember any of that - they still scrunch up their faces and scowl. 

The word 'sell' continues to conjure up images of inauthenticity and old school marketing tactics.

But not for me. I know better. I know that learning how to sell - especially in today's new economy - is essential if you want success. 


Selling is the cornerstone of commerce and has been since the beginning of time. Without something to sell, we have no economic model. Without someone to sell it there is no money earned. And last time I checked - that is the currency we use so we may put food on the table and a roof over our heads. 

There is no doubt that how we sell (like just about every other profession and industry) is in a state of disruption. Customers are more educated than ever before. And in the age of noise, we all hate - more than ever - to feel as if we are being pushed.

But the truth is that in today's brave new digital world - whether we want to admit it or not - we are selling every day. 

All of us. 

If not a product, we are selling ourselves. Through social networks and at cocktail parties. To our bosses, our employees, our husbands or wives. To that guy who might be the new boyfriend. 

Selling only becomes sleazy when 
- you don't believe in your product or service
- you don't believe in yourself. 
- there is no real value to what you are selling. 
- you try to convince someone to buy before you know if it will solve their problem.
- you don't know what their problem is and/or don't care.
- your product or service has no real use - to anyone.
- your "spin" has become so far spun that it is no longer authentic. 
- you are so busy talking you have forgotten to listen.

Selling is not just about taking the order. It's about understanding  people and their appetites. It's about creating need and filling that need. It's about understanding problems and offering solutions. It's about learning to tell a story that engages.

Nothing sleazy about that in my book.


Note- I will be speaking on why sales is a critical skill at BlogHer Pro in San Francisco October 22-23 !

BlogHer Pro is for professionally-minded online influencers interested in taking their business, marketing and technical skills to the next level. If that's you - sign up today!




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The Blog About Nothing - Day 7

I admit - readily - that today, the seventh day of my thirty day blogging experiment is the most challenging - at least so far.

After a long weekend at the home of my dear friends on the East End of Long Island I came back with no idea of what I wanted to write today. Last night,  I turned on my computer and instead of setting the egg timer and opening up a new page to see what might come out of me, I circled it. I read through emails, caught up on newsletters that had gone unread and did a lot of laundry. I even dusted and vacuumed thinking a clean desk would help.  I opened up my Scrivener file where I am storing all the ideas I've been jotting down and stared. Not one screamed "Pick Me!"

So I went back to those unread newsletters. One of them directed me to Jerry Seinfeld's web series. Apparently Jerry (after being a faithful follower of Seinfeld I feel close enough to refer to him by his first name) has a web series called Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. What you get is what the title tells you. Jerry chooses a car from his vast collection, calls up a comedian, picks them up and they go for coffee.

I am a full season late to this party. Season 2 is already underway. Past episodes are archived on the Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee website and at Crackle. Jerry Seinfeld chatting with people from Carl Reiner to David Letterman to Alec Baldwin. Sarah Silverman was noticeably,  the lone female in the group to which I ask, What is that about? 

But that aside, I started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Until it hit me. I was sitting in front of my computer watching something funny and original that could not be found on traditional television. I hadn't discovered it from an advertisement. I found out through today's version of word of mouth. Mitch Joel's newsletter gave it a mention and there I was and now I was writing about it - sharing content worth sharing.

I did a little research into how this came to be. Jerry Seinfeld had an idea that he convinced Sony Pictures to experiment with. He wanted to break into a new medium and liked "the flexibility of the Internet."  Sony wants to develop original programming for the Internet. His relationship with Sony and with Steve Mosko, President of Sony Pictures gave him the green light for the first season.

There was no elaborate set or contrived story - just simple conversation that made me smile and forget about the fact that I had nothing to write about. Because suddenly, as I was watching a webisode that really is about nothing, I did have something to write about.

The success of the first season resulted in an order for 24 new episodes. This time they are looking to monetize it and have signed Acura as a presenting sponsor. Not to worry about annoying, intrusive ads. From what I saw so far the ads are living up to what Acura has promised,  "short, contextually relevant."

Next episode is July 11 with Seth Meyers.  I'll be watching. This time on my iPad on my couch. 

My only suggestion - I think Jerry could find more than one woman comedian out of the fifteen episodes archived so far willing to have  coffee with him! 


note: This is Day #7 of a 30 Day Experiment. Here are the details on how it all started.

The Not So Surprising Truth About Selling

When I first got into sales, non-sales types would tell me they didn't know how I could do that. Talk to strangers and get them to listen me. Earn their trust so they might buy commercials on the radio or television station I was offering at the moment.

Sales, I would tell them, is not for everyone. At the time I believed it.

But that's all changed. In today's digital world, everyone is selling. If not a product or an idea, they are selling themselves as a brand through something as simple as a LinkedIn Profile. Understanding that process and how to apply it is critical for anyone interested in earning a living. Sales has to be for everyone, at least those of us who want to succeed.

I've been telling clients that since I left the corporate world in 2008. Most don't want to hear it. They have trouble buying into the notion that they need to learn and understand the process of selling to further their careers. They hear sales and they think sleazy sales person a la Alec Baldwin in Glengary Glen Ross. 

Which is what intrigued me to read To Sell Is Human, The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Dan H. Pink, "a fresh look at the art and science of selling."

So what is this "fresh look"?  

Dan Pink takes a subject, unfriendly and scary to so many and makes it approachable and yes, human. He creates a new ABC of sales. Instead of Always Be Closing, he applies the new attributes of Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity. He offers some great exercises to practice these skills, several of which I have been using in the class in Digital Marketing I teach at NYU, for the explicit purpose of reinforcing how selling must be understood to be a better marketer. He makes a very good case for what is inherently human in the selling process and how all of us, every day are using these skills to some degree.

But is "the surprising truth" surprising? Not to me. 
As a seasoned sales professional, I could not help noticing that so much of what the author speaks to as new to the sales process in the 21st Century, was what I had learned  in my early days in Radio when we had something called the RAB Consultancy Sell. 

That approach to selling taught us to listen more than speak, to unearth the client's problems before offering solutions, to be an expert resource for their business and ours, to personalize our presentations and be real, to be agile and think on our feet, to earn their trust, and to build relationships with these people.

Of course over the years, the trend, certainly in media was not for management to reinforce that approach but to try and get it all on the same cookie cutter PowerPoint deck and to push the sales person to get the deal. At any cost. Something that ties back to big companies being pressured to foster policies driven by keeping the stock price up rather than what is best for the clients.

Nevertheless, this is a fresh look and a much needed one especially for those resistant to accepting that selling is a part of the human experience and an art and science worth honing your skills. It is also a worthwhile read for the sales professional and the heads of corporations who may have forgotten the very skills that got them success in the first place.

But surprising? Not so much.

Coffee is for Closers

People dislike the word sell. It implies capitalism, bureaucracy, lying, persuading, untruth.  Visions of sleazy, unfulfilled men with loosened ties, wrinkled shirts and worn briefcases a la  Death of a Salesman come to mind. And for me, always, Alec Baldwin's classic tirade in Glengarry Glen Ross.

People tell me all the time that they could never sell. Which always makes me smile, because we all do, every day. And if we don't learn how to do it well, we'll never achieve all that we want to.

It's easier to sell when it is as I talked about yesterday from a place of truth and integrity. It's harder when you are selling a car you would never drive, a dress you would never wear or a house you would never live in.

But what we all have to get good at is selling ourselves.
Ouch! 
I can hear the winces, the stomachs turning.
Selling ourselves sounds so...so....like we're prostituting who we are.

But that is not what I am talking about. I'm talking about selling you as an expert in your field, the person best for the job, an interesting person to make a friend, a fun date. Yes, the selling is not always related to business. It shows up in all parts of your life. You are your own brand. And even if you don't like the word sell, if you want to make an impact in any arena of your life you need to learn how to do it well.

It's a noisy world out there and it's getting noisier every day.  Everything we do has a chance of being recorded, on a blog, a Facebook post, a Tweet, or walking down the street and being caught on someone's iPhone video that they post on You Tube. You need to be paying attention. You need to be conscious.

I'm not suggesting pretending to be something you are not. That's exhausting!  I'm suggesting the opposite. I think presenting yourself from a place of authenticity and truth is what catches people most.  You can't pretend to have integrity. You can try but it's not long before people catch on and sand castle crumbles.

We get a little distracted in our on line world of commerce and information and we think the most important part of what we do is the interesting tweet or the high gloss sheen to our website. Yes, they are part of the equation.

But what is most important is us. Putting our best foot forward. Selling not just what we believe in, but who we believe in. Which in a perfect world is ourselves. At the end of the day everyone wants to have that cup of coffee.

Do you like the word sell?
Do you believe we are always selling something?