Launching This Biz: Stupid Naivete and the Chance for Glory

I’ve been tossing around this business idea in various forms for about a year now. And it dawned on me a few weeks ago that, in the 12 months since I first conceived it, that’s all I’ve done: toss it around. Sure, I’ve developed a web presence, honed my writing skills a bit, and refined it a little. But ultimately, I’m only a few baby steps beyond where I was the first day. I’m ready to do something about it.

I’m not sure my business idea is going to make any money at all. I don’t even know if I’m going to find a single client. I kind of have a hunch that my target market has too shoestring-ish of an operating budget to even consider paying for the service I am developing. There is at least one sizeable, previously established organization in my area that does pretty much the same thing I want to do, and they do it for free as a nonprofit. And with the necessarily low pricing structure I think I would initially need, I certainly will not be quitting my day job on that profit anytime soon.

So why am I even investigating what could be a flop of a small business idea? Because I think it would be a blast. It could mean a lot of fun for a lot of people, and some great experience and exposure in a field I one day want to call my career. It could attract customers for businesses I have been dealing with for years. It could eventually mean a location independent lifestyle. It could be amazing.

My point is this: I may have a million reasons why something won’t work. But until I actually try it, I won’t know for sure. And it will eat at me if I don’t know. So what the heck.
Here’s to stupid naiveté and the chance for glory.

Settlers of Catan is a Better Business Game Than Monopoly

Every time I hear someone talking about Monopoly being a game that “teaches you about business,” I can’t help but disagree. While Monopoly a great game with a long history and an instantly recognizable brand, I think Settlers of Catan is a more accurate board game representation of what running a business is really like.

For those of you unfamiliar with Settlers, you can read about it here. While they are both a lot of fun, I tend to prefer Settlers, and here is the reason:

Settlers of Catan has a reduced, more realistic degree of randomness.

In a game of Monopoly, everything you have built can be completely destroyed just by accidentally landing on someone’s triple-hotel properties twice in a row (or even once, in some cases). While there is a fair amount of strategy involved in Monopoly, you accept from the beginning that there is a possibility you can be completely wiped out in 2-3 turns, and you might not be able to do a single thing about it.

While die-rolling is present in Settlers to give it a little uncertainty, the ultimate result of the game is usually not completely changed by a player having a couple of bad turns. You develop a general strategy at the beginning of the game, and hone it to a specific, long-term plan as you gain more resources and make more deals. At most, a few unfortunate rolls will force you to reevaluate your resource-trading strategy in order to make sure you maintain your success.

Monopoly is not a business game. It is a gambling game. This is fun every once in awhile, but it’s just a little grating to hear Monopoly so widely heralded as the “game that teaches you about business.”

I know Settlers of Catan has not proliferated anywhere close to the extent that a game like Monopoly has, but if you ever get the chance, play it with some friends, or on Xbox Live Arcade. It’s a blast, and quite frankly, I think it’s far more realistic from a business point of view.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of those of you who’ve played both. Do you think Monopoly’s higher stakes more accurately portray your own experiences in the business world?

Get Your Sales Team Using Social Media: Customers Want to Deal With People, Not With Companies

I don’t understand why large companies create a single big Twitter account or blog that is named “@companyxyz” or “The Company XYZ Blog.” Usually these accounts end up just facilitating nothing but a long stream of advertisements and press releases, disguised in the form of tweets and blog entries. There is no hint whatsoever that an actual human being is behind these communications.

Customers don’t want to interact with companies. They want to interact with people.
Often companies are afraid to let individual employees publicly represent the brand, so a typical, misguided solution is to have a designated “Social Media Person” of whom nobody outside the organization ever knows the identity. Customers will not buy into this because they know that companies don’t help people. People help people.

Teach your salespeople, customer service reps, PR team, and anyone who has direct contact you’re your customers or the public the basics of social media. Invest in the digital communication skills of your team, and teach them how to use these mediums responsibly, but personably. Instead of one company blog, rotate the employees whose posts are featured on your blog page. Have several employees tweeting about everyday life at the company. Because nobody wants to hear what Big Company, Inc. thinks about *insert Next-Big-Industry-Trend here*. But they probably wouldn’t mind hearing what Bob from Sales thinks about what it means for them.

If your people truly are on board with your organization’s goals and passionate about what it does for its customers, you have nothing to worry about. But if you don’t trust your own people enough to excitedly represent your company on a personal level, then you have far bigger problems than social media.

I Work in Retail, or Social Media Makes You As Big As You Want to Be

I work in retail.

There, I said it. I am a sales manager at the store level for a luxury home retail chain. For some reason, I excitedly tell all my friends and family what I do when they ask, but I have been very hesitant to tell complete strangers on a career website what my current industry and position actually are. Why is that?

I really like what I do. I don't plan to do it past the end of college, but it's fun and it's taught me a lot. I make pretty good money for a student. My job gives me a substantial amount of responsibility, but also gives me a lot of flexibility, too. I work a full time schedule, I have good health insurance, 2 weeks of vacation, sick pay, paid holidays and personal days, tuition reimbursement, and all the trappings of a “normal, adult” job. I have one-on-ones with my staff, biweekly management meetings, I complete sales reports and handle payroll adjustments when necessary. I do all of the things that your typical sales manager in most industries does.

So why did I not want to let this piece of my identity get out online for so long? It hit me as I was driving home from work, sipping a watered down Dr. Pepper from a Quik Trip convenience store: Retail makes me feel small. When I am participating in social media, I feel just as big as Kyle Lacy, Holly Hoffman, or Rebecca Thorman; my piece of the conversation is just as important and valued. However, when I contrast my relatively short list of credentials and accomplishments with those of the people I communicate with online, it is easy to feel dwarfed by these Gen Y giants.

As soon as I came to that realization, I was free. Free from tiptoeing around my words to sound “bigger” and “more important” than I am when I blog. Free from my own subjective self-judgment. Because that’s the beautiful part of social media: what you’ve done or haven’t done up to this point doesn’t really matter. What matters is what you are going to do now. And I’ve got big plans. Do you?

Salespeople: Thinking Like Marketers Will Help You Qualify Leads

Target Audience is a concept which with marketers are intimately familiar. Recognizing which demographics make the best potential customers for your product or service is important if you intend to drive brand awareness. However, salespeople often are not always as savvy as the marketing department when it comes to knowing who is the best target for their efforts.

Oftentimes, we in sales will relentlessly chase anyone and everyone who even remotely looks like a prospect, just to find out after many months that they really never had any interest in our product anyway. In some cases, business owners and managers will let salespeople court them for a long while, just because they don’t want to be rude and just outright say “no.” Needless to say, this is a big waste of everyone’s time, and could be avoided if the salesperson had done a bit of preliminary planning on the types of prospects they were going to approach.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before contacting decision makers about your widget/service:
1. What common traits do your current clients share? Organize a diverse sampling of your clients into different groups and classes that each have different characteristics. What common themes exist? What distinctions are clear?
2. Is this business experiencing enough growth to have a real, foreseeable need for what you offer? The need for different products and services depends upon the health and growth rate of the prospect. Is a doctor’s office seeing tons of referrals, and in need of a new automated phone system? Is the comic store on the corner expanding its volume so much that it could seriously use your inventory management software?
3. What is the most common client profile with which you see success? With what size company do you do the most business? What industries?

Just a little legwork can go a very long way when qualifying leads. If you take some time to determine who your best customer demographic is, you can more effectively manage your time by going after only likely candidates. What other steps/questions have you used in determining who your most qualified leads are?

Do You Want to Believe?

What is it that you want to do? Whatever it is, you have to want it. Do you have grandiose hopes to change the world? Or maybe you just have a small goal you hope to achieve by 2 weeks from now. No matter what your goals are, and no matter what plans you put in motion to realize them, you have to believe with every fiber of your being that they are possible.

We often confuse dreams with goals. A dream is something that you wish would happen. A goal is an achievement that you are actively working toward. There is a lot of great writing out there about goal-setting (this post by Silvana Avinami is a fantastic example), but you aren’t going to achieve anything unless you honestly know deep within your soul that you can make it happen.
Here are some ways to determine how convinced you are of the viability of your goals:

· Write about it: It is easy for all of our thoughts to get jumbled into one big ball of Yes-I-Can attitude before you have really considered the ins and outs of your plan. If you simply start free-writing your thoughts and feelings about it, you will start to see some recurring themes that will tell you if some things may need to be addressed before you charge in full steam ahead.
· Talk to a friend: A close friend will tell you if your plans are viable or not. They know you well and can tell how much you really believe in what you intend to do. If you are being unreasonable, or are unprepared, you will certainly hear about it.
· Research, research, research: Find personal accounts from people who have set the same or similar goals and achieved them. How did they do it? What sacrifices and special plans did they have to make? What obstacles did they run into? How long did it take them? After finding all this out, measure your own tolerances and time tables against their experiences. Is it something you still want to put the effort into?

This post is not to discourage anyone from going after something they want. Just make sure that you really do want it before you put the blood, sweat, and tears into it. Because if you don’t want it, you won’t get it. Do you believe?

Don't Be A Sales D-Bag

Have you ever had the misfortune of meeting that sales guy? You know the one. That sales guy. The one who is always on his cell phone. The one who never gives you his full attention. The one who is loud, boisterous, obnoxious, and even rude. The one you don’t want to do business with. To be accurate, we can call him The Sales D-Bag. If you are in sales, don’t ever be the one I am talking about. Here are some typical behaviors of the sales D-Bag, and why you should avoid them at all costs.

• Making your private conversations public: I understand that we salespeople are trained to project, to be clear in our vocal communication, and to command the attention of our prospects. However, it can be easy to forget that, in a public setting, we must adjust our conversational habits. If you are in the middle of an office, or in public, you are not in the position to be making an effective sales pitch, so be considerate of those around you.
o Why you should avoid this: You are interrupting the work and conversations of those around you, and they will immediately be turned off by your lack of consideration. Disrupting your customer’s employees’ ability to work is not a way to keep their business.
• Name Dropping: When you walk into a customer’s branch office to visit and check on how your products are working out for them, the cute receptionist does not care that you were invited to her CEO’s luncheon. She likely doesn’t readily know the name of said CEO. You are not impressing anyone by knowing the names of the so-called “movers and shakers.”
o Why you should avoid this: Many of the people you are likely to meet or interact with on a client visit are not high-powered career types. Recognize that most employees of most organizations just want to do their jobs and bring home a decent paycheck. They don’t care about corporate politics in the slightest. So stop name-dropping and start providing value.
• Flirting with the staff: I had a Sales D-Bag from one of our suppliers come into my location the other day, and he shamelessly attempted to flirt with one of my directs. She was absolutely disgusted that he would try to turn on the charm in a business setting. Save it for the bar, jackass.
o Why you should avoid this: You will look like a jackass. The end.

Why is this all this so important? Sales D-Bags are one of the major reasons that the sales profession has such a negative reputation. We, as sales reps, are the constant butts of jokes on TV, in comic strips, and in many other media outlets, and we are widely distrusted by end consumers and business owners alike. My main mission here at People Sales is to improve that perception, and getting the Sales D-Bag out of sales is a great start to doing so.

Do you have any particularly inconsiderate, rude, or obnoxious sales people at your company, or companies you do business with? How about rude and obnoxious people in other departments?

Twitter For Sales Reps: Not Just For the Marketing Team Anymore!

The biggest social networking tool that people seem to be talking about these days is Twitter. Bloggers, business owners, and marketing teams everywhere seem to be jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, hoping to use the mini-blogging/text messaging service to connect with consumers, business customers, and coworkers. But what if your company is behind the times, and doesn’t have any desire to use Twitter in any official capacity? How can you, as a sales rep, utilize this unique tool to your best advantage?

While Twitter’s potential as a marketing tool is yet to be decided, there are a number of ways sales reps can use it to drum up business.
• Advertise Special Deals: Offering 10% off tomorrow on orders of a certain size? If you have any special deals or discounts coming up, you can make sure that your best customers are the first ones to know by tweeting about them. As long as your tweets provide lasting value to your followers, you will likely see increased orders almost immediately simply by being able to communicate with your customers.
• Quickly Take Repeat Orders: Your frequent repeat customers, who often have a regular order that doesn’t change much, can initiate the ordering process by tweeting you a short request message. This is an efficient way to take and fill orders that typically stay pretty static. Keep in mind that this approach is not going to be as effective if your products or services are highly customizable, as many of your customers’ orders may change each time they buy from you.
• Customer Referrals: Happy customers are some of your greatest marketing tools. Business owners who are very pleased with your service will tell other business owners who they know. Since Twitter is a potential breeding ground for viral marketing, you can use this to get organic, social network-based recommendations from your current customers.

These are just a few of the reasons I can think of for salespeople to be using Twitter to communicate with customers. How have you used Twitter to expand your business? Have you seen much success with any of these strategies, or others perhaps?

How to Avoid the Multi-Layered Hell of Multi-Level Marketing

Any young person who has ever conducted a job search in the sales and marketing fields has undoubtedly run into some (more like “thousands of”) ads for multi-level marketing schemes. For the love of all that is sacred and holy in this world, do NOT respond to these.

Multi-level marketing is by and large a get-nowhere scam that can destroy your resume for years after you remain duped by this idiocy. A stint in multilevel marketing looks absolutely horrible to future employers, mostly because it proves that you were naïve enough to believe you could actually get rich quick by recruiting other people, who recruit other people, who recruit other people, and so on, and so on.

So what is multilevel marketing? Where is the money made? Supposedly at some point an end user will buy the products the company manufactures, but the vast majority is made when one salesperson sells them to another salesperson, who then turns around and sells them to more new salespeople. The further up the chain you are, the more residual income you will supposedly get. In the past this has also been called a “pyramid scheme,” emphasis on scheme. Some of the big offenders on this list include Amway, Shaklee, and a host of other companies.
Here are a few things to look out for in order to steer clear of this scourge on the business world:
· Gratuitous use of the phrase “entry-level.” I understand a lot of you who are either students or fresh out of college might look at this phrase as a sign of a job posting for you. 9 times out of 10 what this really means is, “Dead End,” which is a proper descriptor for the multilevel marketing universe.
· Promises that are too good to be true. “Want to make $90-120K your first year?!! Be your own boss!! We give all-expense paid vacations to the Bahamas to our top reps twice a year!!” These phrases typically follow the aforementioned “entry level” phrase in the offending job descriptions. Don’t believe a word. Do you really think that someone is going to treat you this well during your first couple of years selling multilevel green health products? Don’t fall for this.
· Serious Inquiries Only!!! Most people think they are above average at their jobs, which is statistically impossible. This phrase plays on this anomaly, making everyone gullible enough to even give the ad 3 seconds of their attention the idea that they must be a “serious” candidate.

Does anyone have any personal experiences with the multi-level marketing world? I’d love to hear some horror stories? Or perhaps maybe you actually had a good experience? I’d certainly love to hear about those.

The All-Too-Often Forgotten Art of the Handshake

Manager Tools has an excellent podcast about the importance of the introduction part of an interview, which typically lasts for about the first 5 minutes of the meeting. I recommend this podcast to anyone who will ever go on a job interview (which is the vast majority of us) because it discusses real, actionable behaviors that you can address and incorporate into your interview tactics. While the entire episode is worth at least one listen, one of the most critical aspects of the interview that I think gets overlooked is the all-important handshake, and I think this is just as applicable to a sales call as it is an interview.
The handshake is the universal greeting of the American business world, and as such, you have an infinite number of reasons to want to develop a good one. Many handshakes are too flimsy, too overpowering, or just plain weird, and this is an immediate turn-off to a prospect. However, if you follow a few simple guidelines, you can start any sales call or meeting off on the right foot by delivering a fantastic handshake.
· Approach from the front: People don’t like to be surprised. While this is generally not an issue in a sales call, it is extremely important to remember at a networking event, a party, or just out on the street. If you are going to introduce yourself and go for the handshake, make certain that they see you coming. If you take care to do this correctly, they are much more likely to see your introduction as such, and not as an intrusion.
· Firm, but not bone-crushing: This is the most commonly flubbed-up part of a handshake. Grip their hand firmly; let them know you are there, but also ensure that your handshake doesn’t warrant a trip to the emergency room. The flipside of this is the flimsy handshake, which is what many people have a natural tendency to give. A handshake is a crucial part of your first impression. If your handshake is weak or timid, your prospect will assume that you are, too.
· Nothing weird or too casual: You know what this means. No coming into the handshake with a slap, no gang handshakes, no post-handshake bro-hugs, etc. I feel that if you even have to hear this one, you should seriously address your overall professional image, but I say it nonetheless. In short, don’t shake your prospect’s hand like you would shake your college buddies’ hands.
What other tips do you have for a great handshake? Do you have any experiences with particularly bad ones? What other advice would you give for someone to make the best first impression in an interview or sales call?

Why You Can't Close a Sale, and What You Can Do About It

Do you know a salesperson who never seems able to close a deal, no matter how hard they try? They may be very outgoing, they may have more product knowledge than the engineers, and they may be tossing around discounts left and right, but they are missing out on some of the keys of selling in a modern market. Inc. Magazine recently had a good article that detailed a few critical mistakes that young salespeople often make. Here are a few more tips from my personal experience.

1. Shut up. Your prospect is the important one in any sales call. They should do most of the talking. Most communications experts agree that one key to building trust in any relationship is to listen before you talk. Asking open-ended questions and keeping a lid on it allows the prospect to share information with you, which a) creates a bond, and b) helps you figure out how you are best able to help this person.

2. Sell a relationship, not a product. The goal is to sell yourself and your company, not your product. If you engage your prospect as a human being, learn things about them (not in a psycho-stalker way though) and make realistic promises and always over-deliver (as a friend would), you will have a repeat customer for life.

3. Most great sales are a marathon. Sales are not a sprint. Strong business relationships, like strong personal relationships, are not made overnight. I find the most effective strategy is to start out small with a new customer, especially one who is timid about switching suppliers. Sell them something great and inexpensive, then call them after they’ve had time to use it and ask them how it’s working out for them. Inform them that, if there is anything they need, you are only a phone call away.

What habits and tips do you find useful when trying to make sales? Can you name any other mistakes people make when courting a prospect?

Appreciate Your Customers And They Will Appreciate You

Ever wonder why the best salespeople always seem to retain those huge accounts, even when there may be better or cheaper products out there to which the customers could be switching? While there are a number of reasons for this, one of the really huge, gigantically important ones is that these superstar salespeople make their customers feel appreciated.

I personally find that the number one reason my repeat customers come back is because I make sure they know how thankful I am that they choose to buy from ME. Very few things in life feel better than knowing other people are grateful for what you do for them, and I do my very best to assure my customers that my gratitude is immense, and that I would love to continue serving them in whatever way I can. There are a number of ways to show your patrons that they are your priority, and here are a few examples:

· Private Line of Contact: Create an email address separate from the one you use at work (but also separate from your home email, let’s not get crazy) and use it purely to communicate with your best customers. When a customer sees you as an associate rather than just a representative of your employer, the potential for a long-term relationship grows tremendously, which equates to lasting business for you.

· Periodic Value-Adding Info: Every so often, send your best customers some form of correspondence that provides them with real value. For example, sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer sends his customers a weekly email newsletter that provides sales tips, techniques, and articles from guest writers. A monthly or quarterly letter detailing some of the new products or discounts at your company is a good idea as well.

· Hand Written Thank You Note: Your mom taught you this one when you were little, and guess what? It’s still completely relevant! There is absolutely, totally, hands down no better way to show your appreciation than sending an individual, personalized thank you card written by hand. A printed card with your signature is okay, but if you really want to seal the long-term deal, grab a roller-ball pen and write the whole message.

These are just a few ideas. How do you share your appreciation with your customers? I’d love to hear from some salespeople on this, as well as professionals in other fields.

How a Great Salesman Converted My Rock Gaming Religion

Last night, I walked into an electronics store in Dallas shopping for (of all things) office supplies, and when I walked out, the only thing stopping from dropping an additional $190 on the brand new Rock Band 2 was the fact that they did not have it in stock for the Xbox 360. And it was all due to one of the best salespeople I had ever met. We will call him Brad.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a HUGE Guitar Hero nut. I’m not talking about the guy who wails on Hard at a party; I’m the guy who 5-stars almost every song on Expert in his spare time. I was not impressed with the first Rock Band’s difficulty level, which was the main reason I did not purchase it (well, that and the user-unfriendly squishy strum bar on the Stratocaster guitar controller). Also, the price point was a big deterrent, and Guitar Hero 3 had more of the complicated metal songs that I prefer.

When I walked into the store, 2 stations were set up near each other, one for Guitar Hero World Tour, and one for Rock Band 2. I immediately headed for the familiarity and perceived challenge of Guitar Hero, and I played for 3 songs and had a blast. Brad, the salesman, came over and engaged me in a conversation about the game series; NOT a sales pitch, but a friendly conversation. We shared stories of the first time we got through the intro on “Through the Fire and Flames”, and saving our tails with Star Power during the 4-note descending shreds on “Raining Blood.” After establishing rapport with me, he asked if I had a chance to try out Rock Band 2 yet, to which I responded that I hadn’t because of the points of contention I had with the first entry in the series. Brad then asked me to come pick it up and try a couple songs.

He encouraged me to pick up the guitar, since that is my favorite instrument, and he instructed me to try out the new strum bar and see how it felt. So we played an Expert song together, and I saw that the strum bar had been improved for Rock Band 2. He then asked me if I wanted to play something a bit harder. I skeptically agreed, because I didn’t believe I would be adequately challenged by anything in this series. I was very, very wrong. We played songs by Judas Priest, Rush, and a couple of other highly technical bands, and I had a rough time during the solos, which I loved. Brad had spent the last 20 minutes with me building up to this point: I asked him why he wanted me to purchase this product over one that was priced equally, and was clearly my preference from the outset. Brad responded that he believed, given the fact that I seemed like someone who has a very critical eye (and ear) and expects a lot out of my music games, he simply had to sell me a product that he believed would satisfy me the most, regardless of what my original inclinations were.

Unfortunately, they did not have Rock Band 2 in stock for the Xbox 360, so I had to leave without it that night, but I am going immediately to find Brad next time I walk into that store, and I am going to purchase it, and future products, from him.

Ultimately this story tells us 2 things. First, it reinforces the idea that people like to do business with their friends. Brad established our relationship as a friendly one, rather than a business one. Second, it shows that salespeople can be very successful when they assess the needs of their customer rather than the needs of their sales quota.

Thanks, Brad. I’ll be buying from you soon.

Sales of Steel in Only 30 Minutes a Day!!

In his Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer states that he makes sure to write for half an hour every morning before his actual workday starts. He says that this practice will do wonders for your career more than anything else. Reading this a couple of weeks ago was actually the impetus that drove me to create People Sales. I’ll explain.

I read the Little Red Book of Selling recently, and while it has a lot of repetition of a few key ideas (like most business books seem to), the idea of making yourself sit down and write about what you do for half an hour each morning struck me as something incredibly powerful. So I decided to try it. I woke up thirty minutes early each morning for a week, and after I showered, shaved, got dressed, and fixed my more-precious-by-the-year hair, I sat down in front of my laptop and did nothing but write about sales. And salespeople. And sales-related things. And sales-related things about salespeople. Et cetera.

After a week I had a fair amount of content that was doing nothing but taking up space on my hard drive. I’ve been following a number of career-related blogs for over a year now, and it seems everyone who consistently contributes content to a blog (and makes sure to contribute to others’ blogs as well) sees increased success in their field. Since I already spend all day countering people’s negative perceptions of sales pros by providing them with unconventionally personal service, I decided it would be great to share my ideas with others, and hopefully start a discussion about it. Thus, People Sales was born.

So far, writing for 30 minutes every morning seems to be having a profoundly positive effect on my sales performance, my writing skills, my creativity, and definitely my network. We’ll see where this leads. Does anyone else out there have any structured writing practices, or really any kind of regular activity they use to increase success? I’d like to know what others are doing everyday.

"'Cause Y'all Look Like Door-to-Door Salesmen"

Appearance is kind of a blurry subject for salespeople. You obviously would not dress the same to sell insurance policies to corporate event planners as you would to sell skateboard decks to aggressive skaters. Since there are an endless variety of different types of businesses, all of which have their own standards of self-presentation, how are we supposed to know how we should dress when we interact with customers?

The answer is actually pretty simple: Experience. In some industries, it is very easy to take a guess at how you should dress on the job. However, in others it can take some time to feel your customers out so you can suit up most effectively to deal with your target market. For example, I often deal very closely with restaurant owners, chefs, and caterers, and they tend to fall on the more casual side of the spectrum, so I typically dress business casual; it would be off-putting for me to meet with this particular audience in a full suit and tie, and it would probably negatively affect my sales.

A good rule of thumb if you are unsure of how to adjust your dress to that more closely resemble that of your client base is to err on the higher side. That way if you are slightly overdressed, you will come off as professional. If your clients are always dressed more smartly than you, they may be inclined to make premature judgments about your ability to help them.
It just takes time and adjustment. Just pay close attention to what your clients are wearing, and try to stay in the same general range of formality.

Why People Sales?

What do you think of when you hear the word "salesperson?" Does your mind conjure up images of fast-talking, sharply dressed schmoozers who seem to prefer the sound of their own voices to listening to your needs? Do you see the "used car dealers and door-to-door charlatans" that Dwight Schrute so vividly described? Do you imagine bored-to-tears teenagers selling pre-destroyed clothes in a crowded, noisy mall?

Now imagine how you feel when you deal with these people. Doesn't it suck? How could you ever expect to feel comfortable spending a ton of money on new equipment for your business from a slick operator who you are sure is being at least somewhat dishonest? Why should you have to face a whole sales staff who look like they can't wait to leave work?

That's where People Sales comes in.

My name is David Dotson, and I am creating People Sales because I love being a sales professional, and everywhere I look I see people giving the field a bad reputation. Since salespeople are the front line of business, and businesses are all made up of people, I personally believe that we should, as a workforce, make people our business. This means looking at clients and customers as human beings and not as bank accounts. This means forging relationships. Most of all, this means helping people.

So welcome to People Sales! My mission here is to improve business with kindness and respect. As Michael Scott, one of the most human-oriented salesmen who never lived, once said, "People will never go out of business."