Nobody Grows Up Wanting to Be in Sales — But If You’re in Business, You’re in Sales!

Let’s be honest: no kid says, “When I grow up, I want to be a salesperson so I can face rejection, carry quotas, stress, travel four nights a week away from home, and persuade strangers to buy things they may not know they need.” And yet, here we are — in business, in leadership, in entrepreneurship — all discovering that sales are not optional. It’s essential.

Everyone in Business is in sales.

I am a sales training consultant and coach today. I have led large and small sales teams, including direct and independent representatives, for several companies in my past, and I need to come clean. Upon graduating from Kent State University, I participated in on-campus interviews. I signed up for an interview with Frito-Lay for their management training program. I assumed it was their management training program at one of their plants. ( like the Rold Gold pretzel plant in Canton, Ohio)

I researched the company and, in the interview, the Division Manager from Frito-Lay said,” What makes you think you would be good in sales?” I honestly was not ready for that. I recall sharing how when I worked at the service station as a teenager, saving money for college, I sold more tires and oil than even the full-time employees. I shared how I believe my experience training adults in martial arts helped me overcome speaking in front of large crowds and strangers. I shared how I learned to handle unruly guests at SeaWorld when I was a security guard after they had too many rum punches at the Hawaiian village.

I was hired! I never set out to be in sales. However, I was very fortunate to report to my regional Director Harry Jones, who invested in me with training and coaching. After five years, I was recognized nationally for the sales growth of my territory. I was promoted several times and continued to receive training and coaching throughout my career. Eventually, a sales recruiter placed me at a manufacturing company that was looking to grow rapidly.

When I was the sales training manager at Timken, we recruited top talent from the world’s leading engineering universities. I trained and coached new and experienced sales engineers for six months for each cohort. Working with amazing and talented engineering subject matter experts, my job was to train sales engineers on how to sell. They are all technically brilliant; my job was to help them have conversations to share their knowledge while solving customer problems. My role was to equip them to have conversations that lead to revenue and lifetime customers.

Often, the biggest challenge was their mindset about what a sales role was and how they did not want to be perceived as pushy or manipulative salespeople. The human-to-human sales approach I teach is about building relationships, uncovering needs, and suggesting solutions to help the other person. We have a formal sales process that we follow, and we recommend solutions while collaborating with our customers. The current and new engineers excelled in this mindset and followed the process.

Whether you’re selling products, services, strategies, or internal initiatives, you’re selling. You may not hold a sales title, but you’re still influencing and helping others. You’re persuading clients, coworkers, and decision-makers every day. The sooner we accept this reality, the sooner we can shift our mindset from “reluctant seller” to “trusted advisor.”

Rewriting the Sales Narrative

Too often, sales is seen as manipulative or aggressive. When I speak with recently hired salespeople, they quickly share terrible past experiences with untrained salespeople. Some trainers train these techniques that quickly break trust that I refer to as sales porn. But sales, at its best, is about service. It’s about helping. The professionals who truly succeed in today’s environment aren’t pushing people — they’re partnering with them. They’re not chasing transactions — they’re building trust.

And that starts with your mindset.

Your beliefs about sales become your actions in sales.

If you believe sales is uncomfortable or inauthentic, that will show up in how you speak, how you listen (or don’t), and how you follow up (or don’t). To change your sales outcomes, you must change how you view sales itself.

From Sales Rep to Trusted Advisor

The transformation from “salesperson” to “trusted advisor” is more than a title — it’s a posture. It’s about being someone your customers rely on for guidance, industry best practices, insight, and solutions. It’s someone who genuinely seeks to help.

In the book The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford, the authors introduce the Trust Equation — a framework developed from thousands of interviews with clients, revealing the attributes of truly trustworthy professionals:

Trustworthiness = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-Orientation

Let’s break that down:

Credibility – “Do you know your stuff?” This encompasses your expertise, product knowledge, and the credibility you convey when speaking.
Reliability – “Can I count on you?” This is your consistency — showing up, following through, delivering on promises.
Intimacy – “Can I be real with you?” This is the safety people feel around you — can they share problems without fear of judgment or pressure?
Self-Orientation – “Whose agenda are you serving?” This is the most potent factor. If you’re too focused on your own goals, commissions, or need to be right, trust evaporates. Decision-makers can smell commission breath a mile away today. The lower your self-orientation — the more genuinely focused you are on your buyer’s world — the more trustworthy you become.

What This Means for You

If you’re in a sales role and never wanted to be, this is your invitation to rewrite the story. You don’t have to become someone you’re not. You don’t have to push people or pitch-slap customers or prospects. You need to get curious, be helpful, and stay focused on the other person.

If you own a business, have just launched a business, or run a company that has served customers for over 30 years and hate the idea of “selling,” shift your thinking: You’re not selling. You’re solving problems and challenges. You’re helping someone reach a goal or eliminate a frustration. That’s a noble thing — and it’s how sales should feel.

One More Thought…

Sales isn’t about slick pitches, tricks, or manipulation.

It’s about Trust. Influence. Service.

In my book Driving Explosive Growth, I have a chapter on the human-to-human sales approach that has served my teams and now my clients well over the past 37 years.

If you can master the mindset and habits of a trusted advisor, you won’t just sell more — you’ll build deeper relationships, drive more impact, and enjoy the process.

So no, maybe you never wanted to be in sales. But if you’re in business, you’re already doing it. The real question is: Are you doing it in a way that builds trust and drives profitable growth?

Let’s schedule a call if you’d like to transform your sales reps into trusted advisors using a human-to-human approach.

Keep Learning. Stay Connected.