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July 2020 #12252 Page #120
Truth, Lies, and Salespeople
By Omer Abdullah
I
recently heard a talk by Bob Myers, General Manager of the Golden State Warriors, on leadership, values, and culture in winning teams. It was a great speech and there were many points he raised that made sense, and really resonated with me.
He also struck me as a thoughtful and intelligent person, somebody who has been focused on doing the right thing and driven by a core set of values. It’s clear that the Warriors, despite their recent troubles, are an extremely well-run organization, thanks, I’m sure, in no small part to folks like Bob Myers. But there was one comment he made right at the start of his talk that, I have to say, I found frustrating. Not surprising, I’ll admit, but frustrating, nevertheless. In recounting his career, he talked about how, before joining the Warriors, he was a sports agent for about 14 years, with a roster of about 15 players. But, despite the success he had, it wasn’t something he felt cut out for because it involved a lot of selling and, well, he just wasn’t that good at it. Because he wasn’t very good at lying. I laughed but it wasn’t a “funny, haha” laugh. It was more one of exasperation, because I’ve heard that over and over again for years. (Hell, at one point, years ago, I think I even believed it.) The guy sitting in front of me was a veteran sales guy, who’d done it all his life, and he shook his head and let out the same exasperated laugh. This is, sadly, the conventional view of what sales is. A con, a hustle, an opportunity to pull the wool over a prospect’s eyes in order to get them to buy what you’re selling. Because, apparently, that’s what it takes. And as a result, if that’s really what’s involved, then you need to be on your guard lest someone try and sell you something you don’t need. Because, if sales folks are masters of this type of con, then surely honest people don’t go into sales, do they? (By the way, think of the flip side of that belief system. And that is that the customer isn’t smart enough. That the customer is gullible and can be sold something against their will. That you – as a customer – can’t think through or process the requisite information to make a thoughtful decision. A terrible way to think about ourselves, don’t you think?)
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