When I first started out in sales many years ago there was always an enigma around selling and whether it could be considered an honourable profession or not. When compared to the trusty banking profession there was no contest… one was considered to fleece you and the other a trusty bastion of the community.

Well over the last two years both professions have had it tough… the banks faced near collapse and the sales profession has had it tough… no one has been buying… but good news could be on the way… The good news is that the recession may be coming to an end; the banks are back making money and rumours have it that those bankers are beginning to pay themselves large bonuses again as rewards for their fatuous efforts in these trying times. But unfortunately, sales are still finding it tough… but at least the banks are looking better.

The funny thing about it, is that most bankers don’t actually create any wealth… they just move money around the system and they deal with winners and losers. The losers pay the winners with a hefty wodge creamed off to pay the banker. Real money that gets put into the banking system comes from only one place… us… interest and fees.

With interest rate in the UK continuing at an all time low of just 0.5% the cost of borrowing money is still on the increase. You would be hard pushed to find a personal loan with a rate below 10%. Mortgage rates are also creeping up. So this is how they are doing it… making Joe public pay for their mistakes… good business?… well if you are in a monopoly or a cartel then it seems you can do what you like.

Is it honourable to make our customers pay for our mistakes… “Sorry guys and girls, we’ve had a little bit of mismanaging the business, lost a lot of money and now we need to get back on an even footing… so this is what we are going to do… get some cash from the government to tide us over (which incidentally is tax payers money and the cost of the government giving away trillions will be borne by the tax payer) and then make you pay lots more… fair enough?… oh, and we need to start paying large bonuses again because being paid lots of money is not as nice as being paid obscene amounts of money.”

You know, I don’t think I could be a banker… I need to be able to sleep… at least I don’t think anyone has to worry about whether selling is an honourable profession or not when you can be benchmarked against bankers.

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