Sales Ethics: Earning Respect in a Changing Field

In this engaging episode of "Love Your Sales," hosts Leighann Lovely and Rob Durant delve into the intricacies of the sales profession, exploring the challenges and misconceptions faced by salespeople. They tackle issues like overcoming the negative stereotypes perpetuated by Hollywood and the importance of ethical selling. The conversation highlights the critical role of proper training and certification, with insights into how sales professionals can elevate their craft to gain the same respect as other certified professions. Durant's experience and wisdom shine through as he shares the mission of the Institute of Sales Professionals to standardize and elevate sales education. The episode wraps up with practical advice for new sales professionals on navigating rejection and choosing the right job opportunities.

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Website - https://isp-us.org/

 

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Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. I am thrilled. I'm joined by Rob Durant today. Rob began his sales journey as a reluctant seller. He claims that he was tricked. Into his first sales role now as the CEO of a U. S. Operations for the Institute of sales professionals.

He is responsible for expanding the I. S. P. S. Global presence in the U. S. The I. S. P. [00:02:00] Has one simple goal to elevate the professional, the I'm sorry, the profession of sales. Its mission is to bring the level of credibility and respect afforded to doctors, CPAs, and teachers to the sales profession, which I absolutely love.

I mean, because. Far too often we hear, you know, Oh, they're a salesperson or, you know, somebody calls you and you're like, Oh, sales call, I don't want to answer. So Rob, I am so thrilled and excited to dive into this conversation.

Rob Durant: Leighann, thank you so much for having me here today. I too am, I'm looking forward to it.

You know, it's a pretty challenging profession when those in your own profession don't want to speak with you.

Leighann Lovely: And I've said this before, early on in my career, I would, I hadn't really [00:03:00] figured out networking quite yet. And I would go to these networking meet and I was taught to do it wrong, right? Um, they're Go in there. So make sure that you're making the most of your time. I'm paying for you to be there. Hand out your business card and come back with a sale.

And I remember I would see people who I knew were like financial advisors or, you know, real estate agents or, and I'm like, Oh, the salespeople, I don't want to talk to the salespeople yet. I'm a salesperson. And I would be like, run, run away, you know, because yet, you know, and I'm, I'm dogging my own profession.

Right. And it's like, Okay. What am I, you know, and I'm married to a man who's like, God, I hate salespeople. I'm like, honey, you're, you're insulting me. And he's like, well, no, no, no. I love you. And I'm like, well, that's a good, but yeah, even us who are profession, you know, our profession is to go and, you know, sell something ultimately at the end of the day.[00:04:00]

have made that same comment, like, Oh man, another salesperson. So let's, let's talk about that. Sure.

Rob Durant: Is it really just Hollywood's fault? I mean, we can blame Hollywood, right? When you think about it, how are salespeople depicted? In TV and the movies, the used car salesman and, the smarmy evil, um, financial trickster, those are, um, really what people who aren't in the profession, profession think of when they think of salespeople, but can we really blame Hollywood?

Because isn't that just Hollywood imitating life rather than life imitating art? Absolutely. We've earned this.

Leighann Lovely: Right. Right. And the sales professional and the [00:05:00] profession itself has changed. Absolutely. It's evolved to be something very different than it was back in the day when we, when we referenced, because we do, even I have referenced.

You know, the, the car salesman, especially t