BitcoinAddict

AE

Valued Contributor

Boo this man: Why we have a toxic culture in sales

This isn't true for all companies and might not even be true for most. I did, however, want to offer my take on why certain companies and industries in sales might have a very toxic culture full of petty people. I speak from my own experience so I do not expect everyone to agree. In fact, I think I might even get roasted for this.

I think a lot of underachieving spoiled children end up in sales.

I look back on the most toxic managers and coworkers I have had who were petty and difficult to deal with. Slowly, I started to notice a trend that is true for almost all of them.

Most of them were raised in an upper-middle-class suburban type of environment. Quite a few went to private schools but some went to public schools in really good parts of town. Safe to say that most of them had good parents. Almost all of them seemed to also be in Greek Life in their college days.

While some of their classmates were academically succeeding in school and heading off to places like medical school, Investment Banking, prestigious consulting firms, or prestigious grad programs; these kids underachieved because they partied too hard or just didn't care one bit about their education. Maybe they were the college athlete that partied too hard and took in being the big man on campus but didn't take anything else seriously.

Somehow, through some stroke of luck or trying to figure things out, they ended up in sales due to the low barrier of entry. Maybe they got a ton of good leads or an easy territory, so they did alright in the profession. Over time, some of these people got into positions of power.

However, they have an identity crisis going on. On one hand, they know if sales did not exist they would be serving lattes at Starbucks. On the other, their achievements (mostly fueled by luck) gave them an ego with a weak foundation. To compensate for that weak foundation in their lives, these people act petty, brash, scheming, and love to create drama at every turn.

How can we fix this kind of culture when sales seems to attract a lot of these personalities?

☁️ Software Tech

15

14 comments

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Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

8

Sales Rep

In my short experience in sales compared to some people here, I see it on both ends. I have met some amazing and kind people in sales, and I have met some assholes.
The best way to fix a culture is call out bad behaviors, and praise good ones

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

6

Lead Sales

I spend a lot of time talking about how sales has become a toxic environment and how to fix it on LinkedIn. I have gotten a pretty good following and built an solid business because of it. (Red Stafstrom)

It is important to understand the history of sales. Psychology is a fairly new field, and so is sales. Both have only been really popular genres of the self-help industry for about 150 years now. This makes them infants in the world of academia in many ways.

Sales did not become really popular until around the 1930s. When the dust bowl hit America, many rural farm workers moved to the cities to make a living. This means they went from small communities where they knew everyone to making a living from total strangers.

These people, like many of our customers, sought confident people who offered easy solutions. Rather than take the time to learn complex interpersonal skills, they fell for people who sold get-rich-quick schemes in the form of scripts and closing techniques. "memorize this sentence and close every sale" bullshit.

Companies were not immune either. They started hiring sales trainers who had flashy lines and "objection handling techniques" that sounded good in theory but made customers feel trapped. These manipulative tactics found their way deep into the core of sales to a point that many of us are seen exactly how you describe. This led to an entire industry that learned high-pressure sales techniques that may work in low-pressure sales but do not work in complex sales with numerous stakeholders.

Fixing this culture is a long process that will require a lot of difficult work. It will take training in complex topics regarding interpersonal, intrapersonal, and empathetic skills rather than simply memorizing scripts and feel-felt-found style templates.

DalJigsaw

Contributor

0

Business Development and Account Manager

Great post!

detectivegibbles

Politicker

6

Sales Director

Interesting post. Thanks for sharing.

To answer your question...I think you need authentic people in leadership positions that foster environments of growth while still holding high levels of accountability of their team.

You can do all of this without being an asshole too.

Starts/ends with leadership and the culture theyre creating at these companies IMO.

Maximas

Tycoon

2

Senior Sales Executive

I second this.

Mobi85

Politicker

5

Regional Sales Manager

I agree with where you are coming from but I see this same type of thing happening within other industries. Shitty people are just shitty people and sometimes they get cast into authority holding positions that showcase their shittiness even further.
As @Kosta_Konfuciussaid, we need to praise the good behaviors in people and call out the bad behaviors. Sales typically gets cast as this toxic industry because the bad behaviors are highlighted because sales are typically people facing and so when someone has a bad reaction with a singular individual they lump all sales people into that bucket.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

3

Account Executive

I've been lucky in that even the "bad" managers I had were only bad for one of two reasons (sometimes both applied I guess): a) they were high achievers who were socially awkward/unaware but were content to just leave you be unless you needed something or b) they were high achievers who preferred to do everything instead of delegating tasks.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

2

Sales Executive

To piggy back on this.. high performers whether they have good attitudes or not, move up the food chain because the bottom line is the bottom line. Sales is a culture of success. Sometimes these toxic environments will continue because of it. Letting a toxic person go that has a been hitting it out of the park with their numbers will likely not happen.

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

I feel like we have seen this exact post before haha. Is this a copy and paste?

ether way, i cant disagree with you. Some of the ppl in sales leadership i just scratch my head at.

one of the most recent sales leaders I spoke with said something like "well i didnt know what to do after college so I just joined the consulting team at EY"......... like dude thats not an easy thing to do you entitled asshole haha

ego

Politicker

0

Bartender

Change your outlook from passive-aggressive and combative to active-aggressive and collaborative. There's your magic pill.

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

Sales is just an emotional game. These emotions can make people do or say weird things. It also attracts more risktaking agrassive people.

0

Regional Director

I graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering, with Honors (3.8 GPA). When I started in sales, a BSEE was required to get a job. Then they invented the idea of a Systems Engineer (SE) who's really the brains of the sales team. As a result, you now have salespeople who have no idea what the (tech SaaS) product does. They just open a meeting and then ask after the demo/preso - "So...what are our next steps?".

DataSlangah

Politicker

0

SAE

I'm curious to know if you think there are toxic people in every profession. Some salespeople are toxic, but I don't think any more than in other parts of society. Also, overgeneralizing toxic people's success as luck isn't fair to them. Sales aren't about luck.

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

0

AE

Well I have known and spoken to a lot of engineers and accountants, they don't deal with the kinds of toxic personalities in their profession like I know salespeople do.

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