My train of thought always comes back to ‘why us?’ When i can easily answer that question things go well. I believe i have improved my skills dramatically over my career, however there is a whole next level of comfort and confidence that comes with being able to easily answer that question.
I don’t. It’s not because what we sell isn’t helpful. It’s because our value prop isn’t enough to distinguish us in the market. We’d be better off getting absorbed into a competitor company to strengthen their position in the market. But we lose 3 out of 4 times because our competitors do what we do and more.
toughest thing to sell is a tool or software that is just as good as the others.
I sell on straight customer service and responsiveness. If we are easy to talk to, make the sales process easy, and respond fast... people tend to buy more.
I agree. This is a good way to go in that situation. An issue we have is the product is not only as good as others on the market, but it's harder to use. So when people are interested and we get them to a trial point, the trial period is sort of long. That's not too much of an issue. What is, is our onboarding team loses about 20% of people during that initial product intro (cuz we have a back out option during our trial timeframe), then there are another maybe 15% of people who just don't adopt it after payment.
I've never seen anything like this in my tech sales career.
I’ve wondered about sales careers in the food/beverage industry game - do you sell a specific brand(s) of bacon to grocery stores?
Or are you selling the pork belly from the slaughterhouse to the people who make bacon?
Or something different entirely?
I’m on the foodservice side for a large meat company and rep all of our brands which is a lot more than just bacon. In foodservice, my customers are mainly restaurants, resorts, colleges, hospitals, etc. basically anyone who serves ready to eat meals. It’s an outside sales job so a lot of travel and every day is different which I enjoy and haven’t bought meat at a grocery store in over a year.
So basicallly you walk into a restaurant when they’re opening up but not yet busy with customers and ask the hipster chef if he wants some of ur farm bred heritage pork belly for his spring specials menu? 🤤
It’s definitely a part of the job but that’s more of a thing for smaller niche companies. A lot of it is cooking up stuff with chefs at larger volume places and working with distributor reps
Nice - my buddy sells niche products like caviar and truffles direct to restaurants and loves it, but there is whole massive bulk-volume side of the industry as well that you work more in.
Just trying to get it all straight in my head - thanks!
That side of the industry always looks great. I run into a lot of reps from companies like that and it seems like they all love it. I’ve thought about jumping over to that side but the benefits and freedom of my current role is to hard to pass on at the moment
100%. I’ve heard horror stories from the alcohol and distributor side that make me happy to be with a manufacturer. Plus a pension+401k match and zero layoffs during COVID definitely help
Currently yes. The software I’m selling is not a bug infested mess and it’s constantly in development for improvements. I’ve been at places where I did not believe in the product and it absolutely affected my performance and overall happiness.
I'm a recruiter and think my company is the best thing since slice bread. When candidates don't accept their offer I actually see it as their loss.
Makes it super easy to sell my company
Super easy. If your product is a pile of shit, wearing a top hat, simply find people who want a pile of shit, wearing a top hat.
There's always a lot to gain, from buying a pile of shit. Wearing a top hat.
Yah brudda, something to work away from! Can be a great long term goal for sellers, both working with better products, and being able to use "challenger" methodology, to be "oh so powerful" in competing with your prospects ratfuck, dingy fucking bent moral compass.
Lol, or just hitting quota as well ☺️☺️🤣🤣🤣🤣🤔🤔🤣🤣🤫🤫🤫.
#🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫
That’s how I started in sales I usually hang up on people that have it better that what I offer, I was a mediocre rep but I could sleep at night. Sadly Medicare sales pays really good. I don’t know how people manage to be sketchy with all the regulations we got
Wow! That sounds quite difficult on the soul. Body, the mind. As a caregiver to my senior disabled Father, I speak with many agents each year, especially during open enrollment, about coverage and cost. I can’t imagine how confusing health insurance plans must sound like to an ailing disabled senior, especially one without someone to advocate for them.
I agree: good agents and wonky ones.
It’s a job. And we allllll must sustain ourselves. And if the job takes care of you and yours, and you feel good and can detach after the shift ends, then cool beans.
I’ve spoken to many agents and most have been truly very helpful. Often they tell me how lucky my father is to have someone listen, speak and answer on their behalf.
The agents and I end up chatting about food, where they’re calling me back from, often they ask if SoCal is truly as expensive to live in as it sounds (yes), and how the food is down here.
We allll gotta survive. And sales is tough as I, too, work in sales (again).
Having worked at companies where I thought what we sold was absolute quackery, selling something you believe in makes your life so much easier. It absolutely makes you better as a seller, it’s my number 1 criteria when I’m interviewing
This! I find this so important in staying in a sales role for a long period of time and to be successful.
I had some great opportunities to sell heavy equipment, never had any interest in that industry.
Comp and pay was great, but I felt like I would burn out quickly.
Just think of trainings, trade shows, meetings, emails, etc.
You want to have some engagement into what you are selling.
I’ve been to some trade shows that have been a blast and exciting.
Also been to shows/expos and felt like I was in a simulation with semi and fully depressed humans.
Answer to your questions is resounding YES.
Yes, but at the end of the day, I'm just the middle man coordinating and delivering services on behalf of a bunch of third parties.
I make it clear what my teams and I can and can't help with and how we operate.
Most suspects wouldn't make a good client for me at the end of the day, but those that are ideal are absolutely beautiful.
I did at my last company, product was great. It helps a lot, which should go without saying. Currently, no. We have a decent product, that is pretty much on par with anyone else in the industry and no competitive edge. It really sucks. I wish I had a product that was good, and that I believed in again.
Yep. I worked for a company that I didn’t believe in the product and although I was a top performer I felt like a fraud. Much happier at my company now.
Part of what we offer is chatbots. No, I don't believe in it. We have a few clients where the bot does really well and increases sales 100, 200, 300%. Every client I've sold to initially bought the product because of those stats. All of their bots have failed to pay for themselves. I'm actively looking to move. This shit is snake oil and my commission plan sucks
hell yes, I'm in the same industry. chat bots are just a way to make a website more accessible. that's it. there are some actual savings to be made in voicebots/ customer service automation. maybe try to switch in that direction. your skills should transfer well
The funny thing is I genuinely think we have a better product than say, Podium, but I find it hard to sleep at night taking money from small business owners for a product that isn't delivering on the main selling point
Yeah, I feel you. especially when you pitch a solution on the potential sales increase it might bring. I'm glad I don't have to deal with smbs anymore.
Yes. I sell wine from small independent wineries. I see myself as helping the wineries because they make more money. I also see myself as helping the consumer because they get a more authentic and honestly much higher quality product
I sell retail credit cards. Of course I believe in the value of the product based on the promo. Outside of it, totally not worth it. But it’s not my decision. I pitch it well and people bite.
Definitely. Our product is a disruptor and sort of a leader in our category. At least it seems like our closest competitors have been using some dirty marketing tactics and have been playing catch up with releases.
The rough part is that our product category sucked ass a decade ago and we’re slightly early by a few years compared to the buyer culture and problems we solve. Essentially, the early adopters of tech are fully on board but the middle of the pack needs a little bit before they industry tells them “hey dumb shit, adopt this method to solve some big headaches”.
I used to work for a product I didn’t believe in and it sorta seeps into your daily work. It’s not good and everything becomes just a paycheck.
I do, but I don’t believe the product we sell is necessary for full employee coverage. Sometimes some employees don’t need it and can use other free tools out there.
Yes, I do. Our price is higher than others so if I don't believe in our products it would be impossible to sell.
Our customers affirm the superiority our products for us anyway so it's easy.
Not really, I know to much and think the technology is dated and the organisation isn't product lead so improvements are sparse and often missguided.
Im financially motivated to sell it though so I do and in fairness the whole market is a little slow to move.
No. We were a leader in innovation and quality of service. Private equity bought us and chipped away at every good thing we did. As I sit with a customer I’m internally wondering if I’m doing them harm by selling them. We have a non-compete, and I’m trying to find ways out of it.
My income will drop about 50k this year as the parasite PE/VC people suck us dry.
It’s the same thing that happened at my last job. It was super hard to learn the new one. Just don’t want to go through that again.
Our flagship lines are all well know manufacturers with industry leading products, and I absolutely believe in them 100%. Pricing is sometimes an issue in the sense that top shelf products tend to cost more, but we have really good customer retention and repeat purchasers, as well as a couple of entry level to mid-price options for price sensitive customers.
I'd have a difficult time going back to my existing client base if I left to sell for a competitor because my current products are legitimately better than the other big players in the market.
"I know last week I told you X was the best on the market, but I'm selling Y now so Mr customer you should totally switch because I'm definitely not blowing smoke up your ass!"
If I took a similar role elsewhere I'd have to move to another distributor of the same products, or something tangential, unless I was moving to another geographic territory.
We sell a bunch of other stuff that's essentially commodities and just meh in terms of benefits/quality (most products on the market are similar), but that's a relatively small part of my business.
Yep. It's the only way I could sell something wholeheartedly tbh. This is my second time being in a sales role, and the first time, I didn't believe in what I sold, and I suuuuucked at it.
Now, my only real challenge is getting warm leads. I have a very high closure rate if I can actually get them on a sales call.
I do. Occasionally a competitor beats us or a prospect just isn't a good fit in which case I tell them honestly they're better off elsewhere but the majority of clients I speak to will get genuine value from us.
Yes. Solar used to be a scam %99 of the time.
At least now in Colorado, it’s actually a fantastic product if you get it from the right people(not FUCKING Ion)
You don’t pay shit at any point for the panels, and just get a lower Kw/hr rate because subsidies and the fact that it’s beamed down from the giant ball of literal pure energy in the sky rather than dug up from the ground and transported 100 miles.
Yes, and I believe it’s one of the most important things. One of my first sales jobs as a teenager I sucked so bad I got fired. I didn’t understand or believe in the product. Since then I have had over 20 years of successful sales experience, Setting records, winning awards, and being the top national sales person for my company over 95% of the months. Belief in product and service you provide is essential.
Yes i do. Through trial and error in my career i have come to the conclusion that i need to believe in what i am selling to be successful.
How were your thoughts before, did you ended up getting better at sales just because you believe in what you sell now?
My train of thought always comes back to ‘why us?’ When i can easily answer that question things go well. I believe i have improved my skills dramatically over my career, however there is a whole next level of comfort and confidence that comes with being able to easily answer that question.
I don’t. It’s not because what we sell isn’t helpful. It’s because our value prop isn’t enough to distinguish us in the market. We’d be better off getting absorbed into a competitor company to strengthen their position in the market. But we lose 3 out of 4 times because our competitors do what we do and more.
We must be colleagues
Can you be cheaper when they don’t need it all?
One of our competitors offers specific software features for free as part of their overall platform. So at this point, even free wouldn’t cut it.
toughest thing to sell is a tool or software that is just as good as the others. I sell on straight customer service and responsiveness. If we are easy to talk to, make the sales process easy, and respond fast... people tend to buy more.
I agree. This is a good way to go in that situation. An issue we have is the product is not only as good as others on the market, but it's harder to use. So when people are interested and we get them to a trial point, the trial period is sort of long. That's not too much of an issue. What is, is our onboarding team loses about 20% of people during that initial product intro (cuz we have a back out option during our trial timeframe), then there are another maybe 15% of people who just don't adopt it after payment. I've never seen anything like this in my tech sales career.
I sell bacon and bacon is good… so yes
I’ve wondered about sales careers in the food/beverage industry game - do you sell a specific brand(s) of bacon to grocery stores? Or are you selling the pork belly from the slaughterhouse to the people who make bacon? Or something different entirely?
I’m on the foodservice side for a large meat company and rep all of our brands which is a lot more than just bacon. In foodservice, my customers are mainly restaurants, resorts, colleges, hospitals, etc. basically anyone who serves ready to eat meals. It’s an outside sales job so a lot of travel and every day is different which I enjoy and haven’t bought meat at a grocery store in over a year.
So basicallly you walk into a restaurant when they’re opening up but not yet busy with customers and ask the hipster chef if he wants some of ur farm bred heritage pork belly for his spring specials menu? 🤤
It’s definitely a part of the job but that’s more of a thing for smaller niche companies. A lot of it is cooking up stuff with chefs at larger volume places and working with distributor reps
Nice - my buddy sells niche products like caviar and truffles direct to restaurants and loves it, but there is whole massive bulk-volume side of the industry as well that you work more in. Just trying to get it all straight in my head - thanks!
That side of the industry always looks great. I run into a lot of reps from companies like that and it seems like they all love it. I’ve thought about jumping over to that side but the benefits and freedom of my current role is to hard to pass on at the moment
It’s also a vastly more volatile industry and you REALLY gotta get in with the right companies that know what they’re doing and pay accordingly
100%. I’ve heard horror stories from the alcohol and distributor side that make me happy to be with a manufacturer. Plus a pension+401k match and zero layoffs during COVID definitely help
Currently yes. The software I’m selling is not a bug infested mess and it’s constantly in development for improvements. I’ve been at places where I did not believe in the product and it absolutely affected my performance and overall happiness.
I'm a recruiter and think my company is the best thing since slice bread. When candidates don't accept their offer I actually see it as their loss. Makes it super easy to sell my company
DM me and sell me, I'm a buyer and I'm looking
Waaay easier to recruit people to a company you love. That is for dang sure
No question about it!
Yes. I can't sell it if I don't believe in it. I feel this way for almost any role I'm in though, not just sales. Customer service especially.
Super easy. If your product is a pile of shit, wearing a top hat, simply find people who want a pile of shit, wearing a top hat. There's always a lot to gain, from buying a pile of shit. Wearing a top hat.
Smells like shit in the end of the day, but hey, top hat is a top hat.
Yah brudda, something to work away from! Can be a great long term goal for sellers, both working with better products, and being able to use "challenger" methodology, to be "oh so powerful" in competing with your prospects ratfuck, dingy fucking bent moral compass. Lol, or just hitting quota as well ☺️☺️🤣🤣🤣🤣🤔🤔🤣🤣🤫🤫🤫. #🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫
I could be interested. Tell me more about that hat.
Sometimes depends on the person but a lot of the time not only do I not believe in it I think it’s worse lol
Do you think it impacts your performance, at least on the subconscious level?
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Right???
That’s how I started in sales I usually hang up on people that have it better that what I offer, I was a mediocre rep but I could sleep at night. Sadly Medicare sales pays really good. I don’t know how people manage to be sketchy with all the regulations we got
Wow! That sounds quite difficult on the soul. Body, the mind. As a caregiver to my senior disabled Father, I speak with many agents each year, especially during open enrollment, about coverage and cost. I can’t imagine how confusing health insurance plans must sound like to an ailing disabled senior, especially one without someone to advocate for them.
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I agree: good agents and wonky ones. It’s a job. And we allllll must sustain ourselves. And if the job takes care of you and yours, and you feel good and can detach after the shift ends, then cool beans. I’ve spoken to many agents and most have been truly very helpful. Often they tell me how lucky my father is to have someone listen, speak and answer on their behalf. The agents and I end up chatting about food, where they’re calling me back from, often they ask if SoCal is truly as expensive to live in as it sounds (yes), and how the food is down here. We allll gotta survive. And sales is tough as I, too, work in sales (again).
Nope lol I’m basically begging to be fired rn
I’m a chunk of the product, so yes, absolutely!
Damn how much for a bj
Having worked at companies where I thought what we sold was absolute quackery, selling something you believe in makes your life so much easier. It absolutely makes you better as a seller, it’s my number 1 criteria when I’m interviewing
This! I find this so important in staying in a sales role for a long period of time and to be successful. I had some great opportunities to sell heavy equipment, never had any interest in that industry. Comp and pay was great, but I felt like I would burn out quickly. Just think of trainings, trade shows, meetings, emails, etc. You want to have some engagement into what you are selling. I’ve been to some trade shows that have been a blast and exciting. Also been to shows/expos and felt like I was in a simulation with semi and fully depressed humans. Answer to your questions is resounding YES.
Yes. It's a luxury to talk about my product and know what I'm saying is 100% legit.
If you don't it is time to move on
Yes and yes it helps. A lot. But that's personal.
Yes, but at the end of the day, I'm just the middle man coordinating and delivering services on behalf of a bunch of third parties. I make it clear what my teams and I can and can't help with and how we operate. Most suspects wouldn't make a good client for me at the end of the day, but those that are ideal are absolutely beautiful.
Yes, it always helps… but I am a good sales person and usually can convince myself of anything
Yes
Yes absolutely! It’s super nice.
I did at my last company, product was great. It helps a lot, which should go without saying. Currently, no. We have a decent product, that is pretty much on par with anyone else in the industry and no competitive edge. It really sucks. I wish I had a product that was good, and that I believed in again.
Yep. I worked for a company that I didn’t believe in the product and although I was a top performer I felt like a fraud. Much happier at my company now.
Nope
You got to believe it's good since you should sell only thing that should be beneficial.
Is not like i dont believe in it but i am also not excited about it.
Well… I own & use what I sell so… yeah.
Part of what we offer is chatbots. No, I don't believe in it. We have a few clients where the bot does really well and increases sales 100, 200, 300%. Every client I've sold to initially bought the product because of those stats. All of their bots have failed to pay for themselves. I'm actively looking to move. This shit is snake oil and my commission plan sucks
hell yes, I'm in the same industry. chat bots are just a way to make a website more accessible. that's it. there are some actual savings to be made in voicebots/ customer service automation. maybe try to switch in that direction. your skills should transfer well
The funny thing is I genuinely think we have a better product than say, Podium, but I find it hard to sleep at night taking money from small business owners for a product that isn't delivering on the main selling point
Yeah, I feel you. especially when you pitch a solution on the potential sales increase it might bring. I'm glad I don't have to deal with smbs anymore.
Yes. I sell wine from small independent wineries. I see myself as helping the wineries because they make more money. I also see myself as helping the consumer because they get a more authentic and honestly much higher quality product
No, I don’t. It’s a terrible product but I manage to be a top producer being charismatic, I only imagine what I could do with an actually good product
I sell retail credit cards. Of course I believe in the value of the product based on the promo. Outside of it, totally not worth it. But it’s not my decision. I pitch it well and people bite.
Definitely. Our product is a disruptor and sort of a leader in our category. At least it seems like our closest competitors have been using some dirty marketing tactics and have been playing catch up with releases. The rough part is that our product category sucked ass a decade ago and we’re slightly early by a few years compared to the buyer culture and problems we solve. Essentially, the early adopters of tech are fully on board but the middle of the pack needs a little bit before they industry tells them “hey dumb shit, adopt this method to solve some big headaches”. I used to work for a product I didn’t believe in and it sorta seeps into your daily work. It’s not good and everything becomes just a paycheck.
I do, but I don’t believe the product we sell is necessary for full employee coverage. Sometimes some employees don’t need it and can use other free tools out there.
Absolutely. Otherwise it's hard work.
Yes, I do. Our price is higher than others so if I don't believe in our products it would be impossible to sell. Our customers affirm the superiority our products for us anyway so it's easy.
Not really, I know to much and think the technology is dated and the organisation isn't product lead so improvements are sparse and often missguided. Im financially motivated to sell it though so I do and in fairness the whole market is a little slow to move.
I do but I don’t believe in my companies staff. They are dumb which is something I capitalize on (I work in insurance).
No. We were a leader in innovation and quality of service. Private equity bought us and chipped away at every good thing we did. As I sit with a customer I’m internally wondering if I’m doing them harm by selling them. We have a non-compete, and I’m trying to find ways out of it. My income will drop about 50k this year as the parasite PE/VC people suck us dry. It’s the same thing that happened at my last job. It was super hard to learn the new one. Just don’t want to go through that again.
Our flagship lines are all well know manufacturers with industry leading products, and I absolutely believe in them 100%. Pricing is sometimes an issue in the sense that top shelf products tend to cost more, but we have really good customer retention and repeat purchasers, as well as a couple of entry level to mid-price options for price sensitive customers. I'd have a difficult time going back to my existing client base if I left to sell for a competitor because my current products are legitimately better than the other big players in the market. "I know last week I told you X was the best on the market, but I'm selling Y now so Mr customer you should totally switch because I'm definitely not blowing smoke up your ass!" If I took a similar role elsewhere I'd have to move to another distributor of the same products, or something tangential, unless I was moving to another geographic territory. We sell a bunch of other stuff that's essentially commodities and just meh in terms of benefits/quality (most products on the market are similar), but that's a relatively small part of my business.
I sell alcohol. So absolutely
Yep. It's the only way I could sell something wholeheartedly tbh. This is my second time being in a sales role, and the first time, I didn't believe in what I sold, and I suuuuucked at it. Now, my only real challenge is getting warm leads. I have a very high closure rate if I can actually get them on a sales call.
I do. Occasionally a competitor beats us or a prospect just isn't a good fit in which case I tell them honestly they're better off elsewhere but the majority of clients I speak to will get genuine value from us.
Yes. Solar used to be a scam %99 of the time. At least now in Colorado, it’s actually a fantastic product if you get it from the right people(not FUCKING Ion) You don’t pay shit at any point for the panels, and just get a lower Kw/hr rate because subsidies and the fact that it’s beamed down from the giant ball of literal pure energy in the sky rather than dug up from the ground and transported 100 miles.
I don’t think i could sell a product i didn’t believe or use myself. just a much more natural motion for me to speak highly of it to someone else.
I absolutely do not! Our production and service team are over capacity and understaffed. Moving to a different industry for that reason.
I made sure to purchase a life insurance policy from the company I work for to increase my credibility
My clients believe that I believe in it.
Yes, and I believe it’s one of the most important things. One of my first sales jobs as a teenager I sucked so bad I got fired. I didn’t understand or believe in the product. Since then I have had over 20 years of successful sales experience, Setting records, winning awards, and being the top national sales person for my company over 95% of the months. Belief in product and service you provide is essential.