The Art of Selling Self-Deception... Career Warning Signs By Art Waskey 2010.04 Deception is the practice of deliberately misleading or making someone believe things that are simply not true. Deception is most often associated with lies — when people purposely say things to others that are untrue. If you reflect on your life, you probably say, “Sure I’ve told a few white lies here and there ... who hasn’t ... but I’ve never purposely deceived anyone ... especially myself ... never!”
Thirty years have passed since I had my first conversation with the successful young sales rep whom I supervised, but I remember it well. Five years of phenomenal sales successes had fostered a dangerously delusional self-confidence in this young man, leading him to believe he was invincible when it came to “closing the big deals.”
Shortly before our conversation he had closed several major deals; his numbers were exceptional and he was totally unprepared for what was ahead. “Self-deception” lurked within him. Had he known the warning signs of self-deception, perhaps he would have been better prepared for a downturn in sales.
The warning signs of self-deception include: 1. False Assurance — is your sales success more about having the “right product at the right time” than it is about your ability to sell? Have you developed new sales skills and built lasting relationships, or simply become a “sales legend” in your own mind?
2. Failure of Self-Examination — have you invested significant time in honing your sales skills? Sales skills are not genetically inbred; these skills are learned and mastered through perseverance and practice.
3. Inordinate Concentration on Activity — are your sales activities based on the immediate “tyranny of the urgent,” that is, solving customer issues that bring temporary satisfaction, or do they meet long-term commitments? Are organizational skill development, task prioritizing, and long-range planning ignored ... or ridiculed?
4. Unbalanced Priorities — are you concerned more about current activity levels and earnings or development of new customers and growth strategies? Are you investing appropriate amounts of “sweat equity” to guarantee future successes?
Less than a year after our initial conversation, the rep’s corporation underwent severe economic reverses, and the rep’s sales figures fell like a rock ... I was forced to lay off the young man. It was his first “reality check” and a hard pill to swallow! But, to his credit, he re-assessed his sales performance and went on to enjoy an outstanding sales career. Never again would he be seduced by delusions of self-deception.
No matter where you may be in your career — stop, look, and listen for self-deception — it could be leading you to the place where no one can afford to go.
Art Waskey is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for General Air Services and Supply Company in Denver, CO, and author of “The Art of Sales in One Month” and “The Art of Sales in a Second Month.” He can be reached at awaskey@generalair.com
