( by and large ) : http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/by-and-large.h…

Nitpicking aside, re the content, I'm not in sales, however my impression as an outsider is that sales seems to be a people business (and not necessarily a product business), so it would involve a lot of person-to-person interaction and persuasion. In that light, I'd think it would be important for a salesperson to be generally enthusiastic and empathetic. Outsiders may see salespeople getting together to rev up their enthusiasm and think "they're all emotional (and therefore not rational)", when in fact it's quite rational up your enthusiasm and attitude, as any negative perceptions by potential customers will be picked up on & count against you or your product.

Again, IMO as a non-sales person…

You are of course right – bank managers should be good salespeople. But the fact is that many are badly trained (or not trained) in this important aspect of their jobs.

I could write for ages on banks, selling and customer service but I won't… Maybe that's one for over a coffee some time!

Tom

Thanks for your comments… as someone who comes from a family of teachers too, I think the comment that teachers care is every bit as generalistic as saying business is only about the money.

Glad to hear that you've broken through the glass barrier!

I wholeheartedly agree with all of your points.

I also think some people are stuck with a couple of common beliefs/stereotypes:

1. Sales people are overpaid conmen who contribute nothing.

2. I'm not in sales, I do the real work.

These work together to make them avoid doing anything constructive about sales, neatly limiting their success. I know this one well because I used to be one of these people!

I also remember an argument I had once with my mother who is a retired school teacher.

She said to me: "In teaching we really care about what we do, for its own sake, it is not like business where they are only in it for the money."

I pointed out that most successful people I'd met who were in business seemed to believe in what they did for its own sake too, and that she apparently didn't care about teaching enough to forgo her own salary and work for free.

Needless to say, she wasn't having any of it, because she refused to have anything to do with "business types".

Tom.

Banking these days seems to have been reduced to a formula or system with sales people as a front end. These sales people know very little about the concepts of banking and just put a human face on a computer.

The phrase "Computer says no" must have been incepted after having had a decision inflicted on one of the Little Britain guys.

So I would say that Kevin IS a sales person, albeit a very, VERY poor one.