Written by: Owain Henri Llewellyn Lalanirina Williams, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
At the time of writing this (July 2022), LinkedIn shows just over 400,000 active profiles for people in the UK who have ‘B2B sales’ on their profile. I’m one of them and have been all my working life since my 1st part-time job canvassing for a double-glazing business whilst I was studying at college. I’m 40 now and I’m one of many people for who working in sales has been fundamental to getting me to where I am in life right now and it’s going to help me get to where I want to be.
Like most career salespeople, I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a salesperson and, like many, I fell into it when it became obvious that my actual dream of becoming a pro athlete wasn’t going to happen. I did well academically so, had my heart been in it, I could’ve turned my hand to a number of different paths but I ended up in sales primarily because I am very confident and I’m a great communicator (note – I haven’t written ‘talker’).
If you’ve never met a salesperson before, I’ll take a good guess that I would conform exactly to the image you see when you close your eyes and picture one: I’m an alpha male with a loud voice who is very charming and could talk for hours. Whilst this is my reality (and I embrace it), the ‘typical’ successful salesperson looks very different in today’s World. I’ve spent the majority of my career having to breakdown the wall that goes up when meeting new people and telling them I work in sales – once it’s down though, most people start to see that I’m a great listener, I’m genuine, I’m genuinely interested in knowing more about them and I’m not permanently in ‘sell’ mode. As soon as I understood that taking this approach worked best in helping strangers relax with me, that became my standard way of operating and it still is!.
3 paragraphs in – thanks for staying with me… I’ll get to the main point of the article now. Unlike in the US, working in sales in the UK is still looked at with skepticism. Salespeople are still viewed as generally untrustworthy and that they’ll bully a poor person into buying something they don’t need. Working in sales is not promoted in the education system as a career to consider. Parents & Carers are proud to send their child to University to take on a big debt chasing a random degree that they have no intention of using for a career yet they’re embarrassed or maybe even ashamed when their child starts working in sales.
I recognize that B2B sales in the UK are full of cowboys & thieves who certainly make it harder for the genuinely good people to not be generalized with them but, on the other hand, the bad examples help the better ones stand out even more. What is really confusing however is that, in all other professions that are typically promoted by career advisers, there are numerous examples of cowboys & thieves (if not worse) yet none of those careers seem to suffer as much from stereotyping as B2B sales do.
So, what can be done to change this in the UK? Well, thankfully, I am starting to notice a changing impression of sales amongst younger millennials as well as Gen Zs. It’s still a job that people are falling into when all else fails or they have no idea what they want to do but, based on what I see on LinkedIn and conversations I have, it does seem like there’s a changing perception of sales in the UK which is great!.
Once the negative stereotypes and perceptions change, I predict a significant surge in professional salespeople in the UK and beyond. Who’s going to change those perceptions? Sales professionals of past, present, and future! As an industry, we need to keep raising standards, promote CPD, force out the cowboys, and have more regulatory and professional bodies who can continue to support the elevation of the Sales profession. I’d love to hear your ideas about how we can achieve this aim – find me on LinkedIn and get in touch.
Owain Henri Llewellyn Lalanirina Williams, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Owain is a Dad, Husband, B2B Sales Professional, food lover, and football player – listed in order of priority! Having worked in sales since 1998, Owain has only ever known life as a salesperson and a leader. Having set up his own consultancy in 2020, Owain now helps his clients to achieve consistently better sales results – whether that's a business owner who needs a sales dept to take the pressure off them to deliver results or whether it's a salesperson who wants to progress their career, Owain's experience helps his clients accelerate their results and avoid making the same mistakes that he has made!
