“As a sales professional can you REALLY turn it off on the weekend or after hours?”

This was a question recently posed in the Sales Playbook! group on LinkedIn.  (It’s a closed group so no link.  If you’re really interested, join the group as it’s a good one.)

It’s a US-centric group so, as you might imagine, most contributors fall into the ‘always on’ category. (That’s my confirmation bias on show there, folks.  I’m a regular one-man echo chamber.)

I did contribute to the discussion about half way through saying “When I started out in sales (all those long years ago) I was very much like most of the people who have responded so far – radar always on, looking and listening for the next opportunity.

However, within a very short time my friends and family got on my case and told me to ‘switch it off’ when I was out with them. Their main complaint was that we were all there to have a good time, not to see me practice my tradecraft.”

(In defence of the word ‘tradecraft’ I had just finished reading the most recent James Bond novel, ‘

Carte Blanche’ by Jeffrey Deaver. I’ve never read any of the original Fleming ‘Bond’ books so I don’t know how it compares but I enjoyed it.)

I then went on to say that I now see my job as a just a job and that it’s easy to switch off and do something else.

Kidding Myself?

However, over the subsequent weeks my subconscious has been jabbing me with a pointy stick in an effort to tell me I’m kidding myself.

The reality is that I now sell into such a niche market that I very rarely run into anyone who would be interested in what I have to offer.  As I’m typing this I can virtually guarantee that there is no-one within 100 miles of me who wants to buy what I am selling.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not listening!  If there was a news item on the TV or radio regarding the steel industry, I would be ‘all ears’.  I have friends who don’t work in sales but they seem to be the same – they’re always happy to talk about work at any time.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

So would I be different if I were selling a more widely used product?  Sad to say, I probably would be but I hope I never get to the level of someone I met a few years ago.

I was lunching with a US colleague at a bar in a US airport. A woman across the corner of the bar engaged us in what appeared to be a conversation – you know the sort of thing, kindred spirits, adversities of travel, yada, yada, yada. Suddenly, she hits us with her pitch, insurance of some sort.

My colleague didn’t seem to mind but I just found it really unpleasant, particularly when she ignored us totally after she had discovered we weren’t in the market for what she was touting.

Yes, I recognise that people have to earn a living and that I’m probably being overly sensitive but it just left a really sour taste in my mouth. Not something you want in the middle of your lunch.

Surely a good sales professional can recognise when it’s the right time to pitch and when it’s the right time just to shoot the breeze?

What do you think?  Was I being overly sensitive?  Is there a right time and a wrong time to ply your wares?