The Most Dangerous Misconception in Business: Selling Doesn’t Matter
If I had to choose the most dangerous misconception in business, it would be this one: That selling isn’t an important skill.
What makes this belief so dangerous is that people don’t say it out loud. They give lip service to the importance of selling, invest in BDRs and CROs and sales training. But deep down, about half of the CEOs I work with aren’t convinced that selling matters.
Revenue matters. Closing deals matters. But they believe that if the quality of their offer is high enough, and if they dial in the value proposition just right, that the selling will take care of itself.
And that’s just…wrong. Even when you have an offer that is so specifically tailored to your ideal customer, and even when you deliver that offer flawlessly—you still have to sell it.
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I said half the CEOs I work with because I see business leaders divided into two camps: there are sales-driven CEOs and delivery-driven CEOs. And on balance, I’d choose being a delivery-driven CEO (though I’m largely a sales-driven CEO myself).
But. But that does not mean you can ignore the beautiful, powerful, art of selling.
I was recently listening to Tom Rinks’ episode of the How I Built This podcast. Tom is the CEO of sunscreen brand Sun Bum, a brand he sold for $400 million. And he is a master at sales.
Sun Bum is a great brand with a cool identity. But at the end of the day, it’s sunscreen with a good smell in a nicely packaged can. A commodity that, ultimately, isn’t terribly differentiated in the market.
Tom sold the crap out of it. He’s a born salesperson, and I firmly believe he could have sold any product—good or bad—and grown a 9-figure business out of it.
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The ability to sell solves a whole lot of problems. Selling is how a business grows, and doing it well gives you the financial cushion to reinvest in a quality offer, to hire leaders to take you to the next level, to delegate so you can focus on whatever it is you do best for the business.
Selling doesn’t fix every issue in a company, but it offers enough breathing room that you can tackle challenges without being under constant stress and pressure. You should sell a product or service that’s amazing, and work hard to keep it that way. But even if your offer is in development and imperfect, you should continue to sell it. Selling is the fundamental unit of exchange that makes a business…a business. Not a nice to have, not a skill for some other company. The core of this thing you’ve built.
One note so you don’t think I’m contradicting myself (though always remember two things can be true): what I said about delivery-driven CEOs and sales-driven CEOs still holds. If you are that delivery-driven CEO, the best salesperson in the company does not need to be YOU personally.
Your company needs to become incredible at selling. You need to support, appreciate, and hire for that skill. But they do not need to become something they are not. If #1 salesperson isn’t your destiny, that’s fine. Just make sure you find a #1 salesperson, equip them with a great offer to sell, and align incentives so they turn your business into a selling machine.
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Look. I’m going to let you in on a secret. A secret that, if you think about yourself as a customer, you already know to be true.
You want to be sold to. You want to be convinced, whether you are signing up for a $100K consulting project or a $25/month software subscription, that you are making a wise decision. That this investment of your dollars and your time will pay off, and get you closer to whatever it is you hope to achieve. Someone who can sell effectively gives you the confidence you need to back yourself up on your own decisions. And that is a beautiful thing to be able to give to customers.
We are all skeptical, uncertain, and a little overwhelmed. We can see a solution that holds the answer to our problems and still feel…unsure. To overcome our hesitancy, we need to be sold to.
It is a great gift to sell something you truly believe in to someone who truly needs it.
Now go get ‘em.
