Salespeople need to “Earn the right” to become suppliers more than they ever did before.

If you sound like a contestant from The Apprentice or if the customer believes that they are being sold AT, you have already failed.

For all salespeople - Driving around and talking to people for a living, with no recognisable return for the time or money spent by your employer - is a job description that belongs in the past.

Ignore the people who say that the sales industry needs to become professionalised: it already has.