Why are you and your people so ashamed of being called salesmen or sales women? Nobody calls himself, or herself, a sales person anymore, and yet that’s the job that gets your business moving and propels the whole economy.
    You give yourselves titles such as account manager, regional manager, director of customer fulfillment, consultant, specialist, agent, realtor, etc. I’ll bet there are as many sales titles without the word sales in the title than there are garden ants right now carting off my new 5 burner stainless steel patio grill. Yet, what you do is sell.
    Here are two problems with trying to hide from that truth:

1. If your prospects and you know that you are a sales person who fails to fess up when you introduce yourself, how can those prospects trust other things you say?
2. If you can’t look in the mirror and define your job using the "S" word, how can you be happy, day in and day out, trying to close deals?

It’s not just you. Everybody’s doing it. There’s an even money bet that next cold call you receive on your office phone will be from someone who says "Hi I’m not calling to sell you anything, but…"
    That little subterfuge shows a lack of courage, because everyone making sales calls is afraid that you’re going to hang up, or throw them out, which you might. That’s the numbers game part of sales. A certain percentage of cold calls don’t need, or aren’t in the mood, for a sales pitch at the moment you show up.
    But, even if you hide that you are selling, those who are not in the mood to waste time will hang up, or toss you out, anyway. Most of us will only listen to a sales call if:

1. We have enough time at the moment of contact, or
2. There is something of value in it for us.

Isn’t that true for you? So, here’s how to feel good about your being in sales and how to increase your success:

1. Understand and believe in your product or service, knowing whom it will help and whom it won’t.
2. Do your homework and target those who benefit most from the relationship, instead of wasting your time with people who need you like Michael Jackson needed Jay Leno’s testimony in his molestation trial.
3. Maintain trust by being honest from the first moment of contact. Keep honor in your sales.

Think Donald Trump ever comes into a room saying, "I’m not trying to sell you something"? Not a chance. The most successful people I know (and I know a lot of very successful people) come right out with it. They open with something that tells that they know about you, and can do something for you.

Try this: "Hi. I’m ____________. From what I’ve learned about you, I’ve found that I can save you money, (or save you time on the job, or improve your reporting, or improve your human resources, or reduce your inventory costs, or make your people more productive, or help you find the office space you are looking for, or sneak you out of town and get you out of that messy divorce fight). Let me give you my two minute elevator pitch and you decide."

So, you’ve got two minutes to see if I agree with you as you talk about my favorite subject: me. I know you sell and you know you sell. Now, do your job.