Personally, I am a business man, a management consultant, and a blogger, so I have done and still do both marketing and selling. That is the only way money can come now. I have also interviewed, recruited and managed sales reps for different organizations and I can tell you that sales jobs are rewarding but it is not easy even for Ezekiel.
These are the reasons why most young graduates struggle in selling (hereinafter referred to as marketing) and why they hate it.
One day, I was coming from a meeting in Ikoyi. My friend was driving me and we were headed for Lekki. As usual, there was traffic but I wasn’t in a hurry. So I decided to enjoy the moment and feed my eyes and my subconscious mind with the arrays of premium automobiles driving out of ikoyi. You know them. G wagons, Mercedes Benz ML 450, Range Rover Vogues, Ford explorers, BMWs, Chryslers etc. It was an inspiring experience until something quite hilarious and touching caught my attention. In that same traffic, were some struggling and less privileged dudes (no disrespect) trying to sell books to the ‘landlords’ of those vehicles. Think and grow rich, why we want you to be rich, and 48 laws of power, seven habits of highly effective people and so many other powerful titles. This is paradox personified. But you know what, their case is not very different with what most young graduates are subjected to by their employers.
Most marketers are trying to sell what they don’t have or use. The person selling life insurance is not even insured himself. The person selling real estate does not have one property anywhere. You are asked to sell pension scheme and you are not on any scheme. You are a sales person for a travel agency when you don’t even know what an international wing of an airport looks like. It ruptures your confidence and for most persons their self-esteem. It wouldn’t have mattered if you were the only person that knows this but your prospective client (buyer) knows this too. That is why when you are struggling to explain the benefits of your product, he looks you in the eyes and all he can see is TARGET. Someone on a mission to meet target. It paints the picture that buying from you is just doing you a favor.
Monotonous product and a saturated market: this is the problem most commercial bank marketers are facing. You are selling something that is not different from what every other person is selling, so there is no USP (unique selling point). What are you selling for GT Bank that First Bank is not selling. What are you selling for Heritage bank that Sterling is not selling? Everybody is selling the same thing, with different product name. Everybody is selling to the same set of persons without promising anything different. The market is saturated yet the Target is outrageous. If you don’t have the contact (connection) to pull a major account, forget it. After three months, you are thrown out. No thanks to outsourcing firms that can provide cheap labor anytime.
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