What is the Difference Between Selling and Producing?

The answer to this question drives to the very heart of the difference between salespeople who just sell and salespeople who actually produce.

Selling is a process.  Depending upon the situation the process can be simple or complex.  Virtually anyone can study and follow a process.

Producing is an outcome. It is an achievement.  It is the ultimate goal of any business and any person in business . . . to produce and to be compensated for that production.

Many salespeople . . . far too many . . . feel like they have had a good day when they have been preparing to sell or even selling itself.  But that is not a good day, not for the business owner who only gets paid if a transaction is closed, or for the salesperson if his/her compensation is tied to performance.

People high in Drive know this distinction. They never confuse effort with production . . . ever.  They drive themselves relentlessly to produce since production is the only true measure of achievement in the minds of real producers.  That is why it is mission critical for hiring managers to recruit only people who have the aptitude to produce.  The question is not so much . . . “Can they sell?” It is . . . “Will they sell?”  Real producers are the most valuable business people in the world.

To learn how you can weed out sellers and only hire producers, click here.

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Dr. Christopher Croner and Richard Abraham are authors of Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again and developers of the proprietary and patented sales test, The DriveTest™, for sales candidates. For more information, click here.