anti-advocacy advocacy

[William Crawford]

William, I cretainly don't mean to beat this to death, especially
since you may be one of the many technologists who, with some
justification, take a dim view of "sales" because in a lot of
companies the sales department can be the opponent of great
technology.

I know, but we definitely see this differently.

If you have a job, then you obviously suck less at selling
than you think.

My current job, I almost didn't get. It was a 2 part process. An
interview (with a resume) and an online test. The 'other guy' they were
looking at had me beat hands-down after the interview. They said they
would have hired him if that was the end of the process. But in the
online 'test' (which was skill and personality both) I blew him away.

So I didn't really sell myself, did I? I simply completed a task to the
best of my ability and was honest on some personality questions. (I
'failed' one of these personality tests before with my honest answers.)
If this is 'selling' then you have to lump in all of daily life with
selling. At that point, selling loses its definition and means nothing
anymore.

Now, I'll admit, when I 'advocate' things at home and work, I definitely
do like you said... I simply present the facts and then my opinion
based on those facts. (Which fits the definition of selling, yes.) And
there are quite a few people that respond very favorably to having
everything divided up like that. The customers at the tech store I
worked at were not those people. They all appreciated my answers and
knowledge, but they really just wanted someone to tell them what to buy.

 

[Francis Cianfrocca]

everything divided up like that. The customers at the tech store I
worked at were not those people. They all appreciated my answers and
knowledge, but they really just wanted someone to tell them what to buy.

Why can't my customers be like that? LOL!

I guess a lot depends on your perspective. In my job (senior manager
in a tech company) I'm selling all day long, and not just customers.
Also industry analysts, my own team and my company's owners as well.
And customers have to be persuaded to stay with us, not just make the
initial purchase. So I guess to some extent I do lump all of daily
life in with selling ;-)