It’s hard not to make assumptions about the sales industry.

“Anyone can sell.  You just have to talk a lot.”

“The more aggressive salespeople are, the more likely it is people will buy.”

“All salespeople really need to do is get on LinkedIn. Bam. Prospects everywhere.”

But really.  I mean, come on.  Clearly, none of that works…  like ever.  Those are just myths.  But nonetheless, myths are pretty darn popular in the sales arena.

Here are 6 of the top sales myths debunked and torn down.

Salespeople are born, not made.

Some people are just naturally good at connecting with other people.  They can talk about anything to anyone at any time.  But this in no way means they’re a good salesperson… or that they even would make a good salesperson one day in the future.  While people skills are important for a sales professional, becoming a truly great salesperson requires training and knowledge.  Salespeople aren’t born.  They’re made.

Salespeople need to be aggressive.

Maybe at some point in the past, salespeople could make more sales based on how aggressive they got with their prospects.  But nowadays, that just doesn’t work.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  The more aggressive salespeople get with their clients, the more likely it is that those clients will go running for the hills.  Yes, you should be persistent.  But there’s a line, ladies and gentleman.  A line.

Salespeople don’t need industry knowledge.

People like to think that they can skate by on baseline knowledge of whatever it is they’re selling.  But this is certainly not the case.  To sell things in the modern world, you need to know more than the consumer… and these days, the consumer knows a lot.  Ever heard of Google?  On top of that, if you truly want to help a person and sell them what they actually need, then you need to know what you’re selling.  You need to know what’s relevant.  You need to know what’s working.  And you need to know what you’re doing.

All anyone ever needs is a hard close.

If you think a sale is ever in need of a hard close, then something went wrong or it just wasn’t meant to be.  So, no.  You can’t expect to win everyone over just because you closed real good.  To sell something properly, you must build a relationship first.

Selling is a verb.

Selling is not a verb.  It’s the end result of many different actions that happen across an entire organization.  It involves research, time, fine-tuning, and preparation.  It’s an art and a science that not everyone can master.