“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These words, penned over 200 years ago in the Declaration of Independence are just as true now as they were then. As sales professionals we sometimes tend to trample on these unalienable rights of our prospects and customers without even knowing.

Ari Galper, a highly acclaimed International Sales Trainer and Coach, and an expert in human communication has discovered that sales professionals need a bold shift in their mindset from traditional sales thinking that creates undue pressure and discomfort for our prospects and clients. This led to the creation of Unlock the Game, a highly successful sales training program.  This new mindset also led Ari to create his own Declaration of Sales Independence.

I would encourage every sales professional out there to place a printed copy of this Declaration in their cubicle, desk area or office. Let’s make a personal promise to the world as sales professionals and demonstrate that Selling is indeed a noble profession.

Geoffrey James, who I did not know blogged for BNET, posted some tips on selling to engineers. While I think the article underestimates the capacity of engineers to see through the sales tactics of meathead software salespeople to the software itself, he makes some valuable points, especially in Rule 3 (admit your ignorance, intelligently).

As a software developer for a comparatively small company, I tend to balk at very large companies who try to sell us things. Since their salespeople know we’re not going to be a huge account, they often ignore these seven wise steps and just tell us why we should use their product and blow us off when we ask questions. I had a notably offensive sales demo with a company peddling overpriced web statistics software recently.

NB: For those of you not in the know, Geoffrey James wrote the very famous, often cited Tao of Programming.