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Sales Models, Metrics, and Motions Blog

This is Water. This is Selling.

by Matt Bertuzzi on Thu, May 16, 2013

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Have you seen the video built around David Foster Wallace's 2005 This is Water commencement address? It has been making the rounds and is currently at 4.5M views (nearly .3% of Gangnam Style fame).

I was talking with a group of BDRs the other day and, for some reason, I kept thinking back to the video.

The BDRs were sharing frustrations with the day-to-day challenges of their role. The list won't surprise you:

  • Frequent rejection
  • Gatekeepers
  • Bogus contact info
  • Calling in on customers because someone didn't update Salesforce.com
  • Finally getting a live phone connect only to be told "Nope. Not interested."
  • Great prospects who go dark
  • Etc.

But the reality is - those challenges aren’t getting in the way of selling. They are selling.

Take a look at the video below.

Although DFW talks about the petty frustrations of daily life (traffic jams, crowded stores & long checkout lines), it makes me think about the routine frustrations of selling (like the short list above).

Now I know that for sales people, a 5+ minute video seems the equivalent of reading every entry on Wikipedia. But give it a try. If you lead a group, share with your team. If you're a rep, share with a few colleagues, post to Chatter, etc.

Selling is rewarding work - but it can be a grind. No one is served by ignoring this fact.

This is selling. This is a people business.
This is the noble, frustrating, amazing, often brutal profession we chose. 
This is the game. This is water.

 
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Topics: inside sales motivation

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