With every other major field in the business world, professionals undergo years of training and education to learn the standard practices, techniques, and skills to make them successful. But with sales, it’s the exact opposite. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Paul Fifield, CEO, and co-founder of Sales Impact Academy, to learn why the education system has overlooked sales (and what we can do to fix it.)

It’s okay to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing.

• Imposter syndrome is common in sales professionals because nobody is told what they should be doing.

• There is no structured learning or education in sales, which Paul deems “the greatest educational tragedy.”

What if we applied a similar educational journey to finance?

• To reinforce the point, think about another important B2B profession: finance.

• What if the way you got into finance was to go get a degree in math and then just walk up and start working?

• It’s absurd, yet that’s exactly what happens in sales. 

The core role of higher education is to equip people with the skills to contribute meaningfully to the economy.

• The pace of change for sales is too quick for it to be integrated easily into traditional education because traditional universities just can’t keep up with these shifts.

• The result? Everybody feels like an imposter, and nobody follows the best practices. And the wheel is being reinvented each and every day.

Some quick facts:

• A search on LinkedIn reveals 60 million people are in sales. 

• There’s not even one book on revenue operations, yet over three million people hold revenue operations titles on LinkedIn.

• The GDP of B2B companies is roughly 43 trillion dollars, and that staggering amount of money is resting on the sales staffed by people who’ve never been educated on their positions.

How can we make an impact and these changes to teach sales principles?

• Educate yourself. Learn the sales standards and educate around those standards. 

• That’s the platform Paul’s company solves by teaching these standards and best practices.

Paul’s major takeaway? Get a subscription for the sales academy (yes, it’s a shameless plug. But it really will help!) To connect with Paul, connect with him on LinkedIn or reach out to him at paul@thesalesimpact.io or +44 075-988-3543. Visit The Sales Impact Academy to find courses and learnings that will help you in your sales career.

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.