Seth Godin posted again and Dave Kurlan blogged about it. I’m gonna comment, but I’m not gonna link to anyone because I don’t want anyone to read Seth’s blog. He doesn’t allow comments. He wants me to send you to read his blog. It’s a selfish blog trick. I’ll read him and pass along to you what’s worth reading until he allows comments. His comments are included unchanged. Mine are in bold.

1. Selling is hard. Harder than you may ever realize. So, if I seem stressed, cut me some slack. Selling is only as hard as the salesperson allows it to be. If he’s untrained, un-practiced, un-professional, he deserves a hard life. If he knows what he’s doing, it isn’t hard. And even if it is, you have no right to take it out on your co-workers.
   
2. Selling is personal. When I make a promise, I have to keep it. If you force me to break that promise (by changing processes, features or a rollout schedule) I will never forgive you. What does this even mean? Take responsibility for knowing what you’re promising and don’t make promises that you can’t keep. Jeesh!
   
3. Selling is interpersonal. I am not moving bits, I’m trying to change people’s minds, one person at a time. So, no, I can’t tell you when the sale will close. No one knows, especially the prospect. Change people’s minds? What’s that? If there’s a problem in the prospect’s mind, don’t change it. Focus it. Make the prospect realize that you understand their problem better than anyone in the world. Even the prospect.
   
4. I love selling. I particularly love selling great stuff, well marketed. Don’t let me down. Don’t ask me to sell lousy stuff. There’s well marketed garbage and poorly marketed great stuff. Should’ve left marketing out of this one.
   
5. I’m extremely focused on the reward half of the equation. Salespeople love to keep score, and that’s how I keep score. So don’t change the rules in the middle, please. Reward? Who cares what salespeople want? It’s all about the prospect.
   
6. I have no earthly idea what really works. I don’t know if it’s lunch or that powerpoint or the Christmas card I sent last year. But you know what? You have no clue what works either. I’ll keep experimenting if you will. If you don’t know what works, stop blogging about it. Leave it to someone who knows what to do and stop blogging for attention. Someone might actually believe that you have a clue.
   
7. There is no comparison, NONE, between an inbound call (one that you created with marketing) and a cold call (one that you instructed me to create with a phone book.) Your job is to make it so I never need to make a cold call. Spoken by someone who’s obviously never watched an inadequate salesperson “blow” an inbound call. The only difference between an inbound call and a cold call made by someone that knows what they’re doing is………”Who’s dialing”.
   
8. Usually, customers lie when they turn me down. They make up reasons. But every once in a while, I actually learn something in the field. Ask! Do you really mean customers or do you mean prospects? Prospects lie all the time. If your customers lie, you’re screwing it up. Call me or Dave Kurlan. Get help.
   
9. I know you’d like to get rid of me and just take orders on the web. But that’s always going to be the low-hanging fruit. The game-changing sales, at least for now, come from real people interacting with real people. If salespeople did a better job, marketing would support them. Unfortunately, many lazy salespeople sit and wait to be driven by marketing. I’m wrong? Prove it!
   
10. (a bonus, switching points of view for a moment): I know that selling is hard and unpredictable. But if you’re going to be in sales, you’ve got to be prepared to measure and predict and plan. You need to give me sales reports and call lists and summaries. It does neither of us any good to keep your day a secret. If you don’t plan and organize, I can’t do my job of marketing. If you give me a list of people to call, then you are entitled to get a report from me. Selling might be hard for you. Marketing would be hard for me. Selling is what I do.
    
11. (and bonus number two): The two worst pieces of feedback you can give me (because neither is really actionable or especially effective): a. lower the price and b. make our product just like our competitors. OK, then tell me why we’re different and why that’s worth more and make sure your sending the same message to your target market.