Long-time readers are probably wondering why I haven’t commented on the Madoff ponzi scheme. I mean, you’d think that an alleged $50 billion fraud would get on my radar screen, if only as an example of over-enthusiastic selling. Anyway, here’s my two cents.
The mainstream media approach to the Madoff scandal was to tie to the financial meltdown with a “greed gone wild” spin. If you listen to most business and political commentators, the problem is greed. CEOs are too greedy. People getting loans were too greedy. People buying derivatives and hedge funds were too greedy.
Give me a break. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a billion dollars. The problem isn’t, and never was, greed. I’ll take Gordon Gecko over St. Francis any day.
What’s the real problem, then? Simple. Gullibility.
There’s a sucker born every second. And that includes you and me, Bucko.
Look, this Madoff character was hawking an allegedly risk-free investment based upon stocks that consistently paid double digit returns. Same thing with the financial meltdowns:
- The derivatives were supposed to be safe because some computer program said they were safe.
- The homeowners bought loans that they didn’t understand, with terms that were too good to be true.
- The investors believed that the pinhead CEOs were worth hundreds of millions in compensation.
- The middle-class thought that the government was protecting them from all of the above.
All of the above are, of course, only believable if you’re extremely gullible.
Now, you can get all hung up with the notion that there are “predatory” people taking advantage of this vast motherload of gullibility. But that’s not really fair, because in almost every case the people who were doing the selling, or the promoting, or the regulating, or just the lining their pockets, were just as gullible as you and me.
You see, in order to run a con effectively, you’ve got to believe the con. Only true sociopaths (which are rare) can run a con while being aware that they’re running a con. Madoff may be a sociopath, but in all probably, while he was running his con, he believed that he was somehow going to figure out how to make all those investments legit. (That’s what Ponzi thought, BTW.)
You see, in the vast majority of cases, the people who are running a con convince themselves that they’re doing the right thing. They breath their own smoke. They’re the heroes of their own story, even if they’re stealing people blind.
Sometimes con-men get caught in the backwash (like Madoff) and sometimes they get away with the booty (like the financial CEOs), but in most cases they’re not even willing to admit (even to themselves) that they’ve only been running a con.
Madoff is refreshing in this regard, because he’s actually owned up to the con — after the fact. By contrast, it’s abundantly clear that the financial CEOs really do believe that they deserve obscene compensation.
What does this have to do with sales? Everything.
Because there’s always a chance that when you sell, you’re running a con… and don’t even know it.
For example, you may be convincing yourself that your second-rate software package isn’t a piece of excrement that’s more bother than its worth. Think about it — if there are 20 different companies in a market, only ONE can have the best product. At the very least, 10 of the 20 products are below average. The guys selling those substandard products have probably convinced themselves that their product is “better” in some obscure way. But in fact, to the extent that their product doesn’t serve the customer, they’re just running a con.
I’m not saying that selling a lousy product is the same thing as stealing $50 billion or the moral equivalent of a CEO accepting $200 million after ruining a company. What I am saying is that gullibility is everywhere, and that most people fool themselves. And people who work in sales are definitely no exception.
What’s the solution? Simple. Have the courage to see things as they really are. And then act accordingly.
For example, if you’re in the software business, be willing to follow the train of thought that starts with “Gee, maybe we’re not doing them our customers any favors by selling them something unstable…” And if that train of thought leads to the inevitable conclusion that, on the balance of things, your product stinks, STOP SELLING FOR THAT COMPANY.
If you don’t want to be a sucker, and don’t want to make suckers out of your customers, you have to be willing to do the emotional and intellectual heavy lifting — which consists of achieving self-awareness followed by committed action.Easy to write, but not so easy when jobs are hard to come by, eh?
On the other hand, if you truly believe — after a big dose of skepticism combined with a hard look at objective reality — that what you’re selling is good for the customer, then you’re one of the fortunate few. Go ye forth and make your millions. Be as greedy as you like.
