How Important Is My Title When Selling?

Copyright (c) 2009 Gavin Ingham

Gavin

You came into our offices around a month ago to deliver a morning's training and said we could contact you with any thoughts/questions we had following the day - hence me getting in contact! I am a fairly junior salesman, currently employed in a pre-sales role i.e. cold calling companies to set up appointments for the sales team. My question is around job titles - in your experience, what difference does a job title make to a persons' success or indeed their perceived chance of success?

Just going on my own thoughts, the title for my role in my employment contract is 'Junior Sales Executive'. I feel however that having this on my email signature would probably jeapardise my chance of success - might a prospect see that and assume that I am not senior enough to be dealing with? A further thought is the impression that there is sometimes a stigma attached to being called a salesman - ie nobody in my business calls themselves that on their business card - everyone is a 'Systems Consultant'. Given my more junior role I describe myself as being in Business Development.

I wondered what your thoughts were? I think that its mostly something for the salesman rather than the prospect to worry about...

What a great question. What difference does a job title make to your success / perceived chance of success? I think that you already know part of the answer with your insertion of the word perceived... I will answer this in two parts...

1) To the salesperson themselves.

Many people, including many salespeople, have limiting beliefs about what being a salesperson means about them. Many people associate negative meaning to being a salesperson. When I speak at sales conferences I often ask attendees what the general public thinks of salespeople and they say things like "pushy, aggressive, slimy, sell their grandma...". With beliefs like these it is not surprising that many salespeople would rather have a card entitled "account manager" or "account director" rather than "salesperson".

Clearly, this is not reality. Whatever your title, this does not change who you are and what you can deliver. It does not change how much value you can add for your clients. It does not change your ability to build relationships, grow your network and SELL.

Many salespeople do obsess about titles and how a better title would help them to sell more but then again many salespeople think the same about their territory, their products, their prices and their education. These kinds of thought can have a huge negative impact on your psyche... don't let them!

2) To the prospect.

Titles can sometimes make a real difference to prospects. Prospects have biases and prejudices the same as everyone else and can make snap decisions about others the same as you do. Some prospects might be turned off by the word "sales" and prefer to think that they were getting "service". Others may like to think that they are dealing with someone senior and hence prefer a title that reflects this.

The reality of course, is that once you are through the door they will judge you on who you are and no fancy titles or strings of letters after your name will hide the fact if you are a no-hoper. It's fair to say that sometimes directors have more success setting up appointments with directors than salespeople but then is this because they have the title or because they act like they have the title?

At the end of the day, by far the most important thing is having the right attitude and making the call about your client and not you. Most clients only care about themselves and their business. Why should they care about you or your title?

More thoughts...

You asked the question about the word salesman on the card and I think that some clients would see this as refreshingly honest and others as a turn-off. Conversely speaking, using something else when you are plainly a salesperson may well make no difference and could even make things worse... calling a lion a horse does not mean that you want to be feeding it sugar lumps, does it?

As for the junior thing, yes this could effect your clients and their impression of you particularly initially. If this is an internal title does it really need to be on your cards? This is probably not in anyone's interests really.

So what does all of this mean?

* Your title may effect people's impressions about you and may awaken their personal prejudices and preconceptions.

* Your title may effect you and your self-worth but you must not let it. You are not words on a piece of paper.

* Anyone with any title can sell anything and you must not get hung up about this.

* You don't need to give a title when cold calling... I never have.

* Why not consider not having no title at all? Or like some companies having multiple titles for differing circumstances?

But mostly, don't fight with reality - you always lose. If you are stuck with a title get over it and get on with it. Anyone can sell with any title at any time and analysing these things for too long may negatively affect your mindset and your sales results...