Third Prize is You're Fired: Why Nobody Thinks They Want to Do Sales

I resisted sales for a long time. I thought salespeople were required to twist people's arms, take their money, and avoid responsibility. I'm no saint, I don't always take the moral high ground, but it seemed like a mistake to agree to a whole career located in the moral muck.

Now I'm at Ruby Radio and it's great to have a product that people want to buy. I remember some of that sense of fulfillment while selling fine watches at Macy's during college. I was responsible for solving a problem: they had a naked wrist and $1,000, and I could help them solve that problem.

Businesses need to advertise to differentiate. Radio advertising is effective.  I help businesses grow. I help businesses expand and find new markets. I help businesses present themselves in the best possible light for what they are best at. It's a big happy complex set of problems and solutions, and it's pretty fun.

The element of selling I'm most surprised by is that I've never been MORE honest in a role.
As a teenager,  I feared that sales work was all about lying.  If I can't prove research numbers, I don't talk about them. I've turned down deals where the expectations were too high and I wasn't going to take their money and tell them it would all be great. I have volunteered to clients when a problem has occurred or that something went outside the plan because hiding it under the rug would be worse than the initial difficult conversation.

Wall Street Journal observed that young people are also resistant to the sales role because of Glengarry Glenross stereotypes: http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-its-so-hard-to-fill-sales-jobs-1423002730. And we have that problem, too.

The best advise I would give a young person coming out of school is to consider learning how to sell well. Don't sell knives door-to-door, or work for less than reputable organizations. Don't be abused or sell dishonestly.

But consider sales as a way to make a solid living that *you* are responsible for, a way to have some autonomy, to work right away in your field, and a way to gain skills that will serve you at every level of your career.

Consider Daniel Pink's To Sell is Human core premise that we all sell ideas, even if we don't always sell products.

If you like solving problems, there is a lot you can like about sales.