At Membrain, our vision is to “Elevate The Sales Profession.” But is sales even a profession? Barry Trailer, the founder of Sales Mastery, LLC and former Chief Research Officer at CSO Insights, questions this label.
After exchanging some thoughts on LinkedIn, Barry shared a paper he wrote that lays out the ways that sales fulfills the definition of a profession and the ways that it does not.
Before we can discuss whether something is a profession, we have to define what we mean by “profession.” Barry points out that there’s a difference between calling someone a “professional” and defining their field as “a profession.”
A professional is simply someone who gets paid to do something. By this definition, successful salespeople are, indeed, professionals.
However, he continues, the definition of “profession” can be somewhat more stringent. According to a more formal definition he pulls from Wikipedia, there are specific criteria that are recognized as necessary before a career type rises to this level. This definition is based on certain uncontested fields of profession, such as attorneys and doctors. You wouldn’t call someone an attorney until they have met well-recognized and legally enshrined criteria for the job.
The criteria for a career to cross the threshold into “profession,” according to Wikipedia:
In his paper, Trailer lays out in detail the ways in which sales rises to this stringent definition of profession, and the ways it does not.
For most salespeople, especially those who are successful, it is certainly a full-time profession. There are, indeed, training schools. Many universities have sales courses within their business schools, and a few even have entire sales schools with majors and minors in sales, although most sales professionals have never attended these schools.
Once you get past these three, though, it gets trickier. There are a few organizations that have a national presence and local chapters. For instance, in the US, Emblaze, formerly known as the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP,) and the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA.) There are other organizations that have redefined “local” by offering online training, discussion threads, and networking opportunities.
As far as a code of ethics, though, matters get even thornier.
Trailer asks: “Does medicine’s Hippocratic oath to ‘first, do no harm,’ and the ‘fiduciary responsibility’ of finance professionals have an analog in sales?”
He suggests “honest broker” might be analogous, but questions whether it’s widely accepted, pointing out that, if it is, the reputation of sales certainly doesn’t match the code. Furthermore, someone who repeatedly violates the “honest broker” “code” (if it exists) doesn’t necessarily lose their job, and almost certainly, in most cases, does not become barred entirely from the profession. Shady dealers are still quite common.
Finally, the question of state licensure is the one where sales stutters and fails, by this definition. Unlike medicine, law, and even many less culturally exalted careers like massage therapy and pest control, sales does not require any kind of state or national licensure in order to practice in the US, Sweden, or most (maybe all) places in the world.
If the goal is to elevate the sales profession, then is it worth aspiring to this strict definition? Or, do we continue calling it a “profession” according to less stringent definitions? Or, perhaps, are we happy to settle on the career as more of a “craft” than a profession?
I think the answer hinges on whether state licensure and well-recognized professional ethics would help or harm the “profession.” I believe that better ethics would help us. I would love to see us shed the age-old stereotypes of being sleazy and manipulative, in favor of a more wholesome image based on true ethics that salespeople are held accountable to.
Other careers have certainly done this. In many countries, for instance, the profession of massage therapist can come with an unsavory reputation. But in the US, it has been enshrined as a profession in part by the establishment of strict training, a code of ethics that is analogous to the medical profession (to which it is adjacent), and state licensure requirements.
Is this something that could work for sales?
It’s interesting to think about. What do you think?
George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.
Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn
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