Here are 8 lies about selling:

1. It is enough to just be helpful.

It is true that you create value by helping your buyer. You helpthem discover their needs. You help them determine the cause oftheir problems. You help them evaluate their choices and theaccompanying trade-offs.

Providing them with information promptly isn't enough to help tomake you a trusted advisor. You need to have chops.

2. Selling has changed so much that…

There is no doubt that selling has changed. And so has buying.But the core of selling hasn't changed much. You still need to beknown. You still need to be trusted. You still need to be liked.You still need to know how to help your dream client produce betterresults than they are now.

And you still need to ask for and gain commitments.

3. Salespeople are no longernecessary.

You can buy things on the Internet. You can find information onthe Internet too. But when the decision you need to makeis complex, risky, and expensive, you are going to want towork with a professional.

4. Inside sales will replace the need for fieldsales.

Every week I get an email from a sales consultant who insiststhat a field sales force is unnecessary. Along with a lot of otherfolks, he believes that inside sales people are all that anybusiness needs. There is no doubt that there are good reasons todrive the costs out of some sales operations. But because somethingis the right idea for one business doesn't make it right for allbusinesses. Face to face sales isn't going away anytime soon.

5. The majority of buyers are engagedonline.

Everyone is online. Everyone is on Facebook. A lot of people areon LinkedIn. But not everyone is online engaging withsalespeople.

One reason this is true is that using the social tools to engagebuyers isn't easy for a lot of sales organizations. In someindustries, like SAAS industries, a lot of people in a lot ofdifferent roles are engaged. But in some huge, old industries, notso much.

6. The new “new” thing is the magicbullet.

Every couple of years a new process, methodology, or technologyis touted as the magic bullet. All of these processes,methodologies, and technologies are valuable. But none of them everlives up to the hype. None of them ever turns out to bethe magic bullet. Because there isn't one.

7. You must wait for buyers to engage.

Waiting isn't a strategy. It's a particularly bad strategyfor a sales organization. No matter how good your inbound marketingefforts are, it's a bad idea to allow inbound leads to determineyour destiny. You still need to target your dream clients andproactively and professionally pursue them.

8. You must wait for buyers to ask tobuy.

If waiting for your dream client to engage is a bad idea, thenwaiting for them to tell you that they are ready to buy is an evenworse idea. The idea that you need to wait for your dream client toask you if they can buy is nonsense. You still need to ask for allof the commitments you need.

If you've earned those commitments, you should have nohesitation about asking.