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Short answer: Selling has carried a reputation problem for centuries — from the distrusted "stranger" merchant to the high-pressure salesman of the industrial age and the film villains of Glengarry Glen Ross and The Wolf of Wall Street. Today's top B2B sellers overcome it the only way that works: by knowing more than the buyer expects, using that knowledge to help, and building long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions.
The paradox: everyone needs sales, almost no one wants to be in it
When I speak at conferences, I often poll the young people in the audience about their intended careers. Finance, marketing, operations — plenty of hands go up. When I ask, "Who wants to work in sales?" fewer than 3% raise their hand.
Yet in the US alone almost one in eleven workers has a sales job. Somewhere along the way, a lot of people change their minds. And for good reason: no company can survive without a sales force. Whether or not it is admired, selling is a vital function of commerce.
Compare that with sport. When Mark Spitz won seven Olympic gold medals in Munich in 1972 — a record that stood for 36 years — his poster hung on walls everywhere. Champion swimmers have no image problem. Champion salespeople, despite similar dedication and discipline, often do.
Where does the negative image of sales come from?
1. The merchant as "stranger"
Long before "sales" was a profession, merchants travelled for years to distant markets and came home to sell goods in places where no one knew them. In a suspicious world, strangers were automatically distrusted. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman wrote that strangers "befog and eclipse the boundary lines which ought to be clearly seen" and "gestate uncertainty" — you cannot predict how they will act. Georg Simmel observed that "throughout the history of economics the stranger everywhere appears as the trader, or the trader as stranger."
Medieval moral thinking added to this, treating trading for profit as a temptation toward greed. The peddler and the travelling salesman inherited the same "stranger" stigma.
2. Sales split from ownership
Originally, the entrepreneur was the salesperson — the baker, the shopkeeper, the local banker. Their reputation and their business were the same thing, so dishonest dealing was self-defeating.
With the Industrial Revolution, companies grew too large for owners to sell personally, and the dedicated "salesperson" role was born. Under pressure to hit steep targets, some sellers made promises the company could not keep. The salesperson was not accountable for the business as a whole — and customers had no review sites, no regulators and no internet to warn others.
3. Popular culture reinforced it
Films such as Glengarry Glen Ross, Tin Men and The Wolf of Wall Street cemented the stereotype of the seller who is "only in it for the money."
How do modern salespeople reverse the image?
The salesperson of today has access to something the merchant of old never had: knowledge, at scale. Operating with deep, accurate knowledge is what separates a trusted advisor from the stereotype. Seven areas matter most:
- Buyer behaviour. Buyers now complete much of their decision — commonly cited at 60–80% — before speaking to a seller. You need to understand where you fit in that journey.
- Expert product knowledge. Not "enough to pitch," but enough to connect your product directly to the customer's business issues.
- Remote communication skills. A large share of B2B selling now happens over video and online meetings, where you cannot read the room the way you could in person.
- Teamwork. The "lone wolf" seller cannot keep up with the speed of modern commerce.
- Serving and leading. Knowing when to listen and when to guide the buyer.
- Resilience. Most prospects will say "no." Great sellers are not stopped by it.
- The social side of selling. Understanding the long relationship arc that a modern B2B sale often requires.
Focus: what the champion swimmer teaches us
Once a champion swimmer dives in, they are alone. Everything they have practised becomes second nature, and their attention narrows to the line on the bottom of the pool.
A sale works the same way. When you have done the preparation, you can block out everything unnecessary and concentrate on one thing: helping this prospect achieve their goals. As Spitz himself put it: "If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail."
Where AI fits in
AI does not fix the image of sales by itself — people do. But it removes much of the administrative noise that pulls sellers away from the customer. In Coevera, AI helps surface pain points, qualify opportunities and automate routine work, so salespeople can spend more of their time on what builds trust: preparation, listening and genuine help.
This article is Part 1 of the series "Cutting Through the Water — Becoming a Champion Salesperson" by Nikolaus Kimla. Next: Part 2 – Are great salespeople born or made?
Give your sellers more time for customers. See how Coevera's AI-native CRM supports the way champions sell at www.coevera.com.
