How important is "purpose" to Sales People

Just to be clear when I say purpose here I am not talking about a focus in your work I am talking more of the environmental, social, diversity type of purpose that companies commonly talk about today. A company’s reason for being, beyond profits, that guides its business growth and impact on society. How important is that to sales people?

I guess there are at least two ways to look at this.

1. Purpose as a motivator either via the company you work for, the product you sell, your own personal activity or what you will do with income derived from sales.

2. Purpose as something more strategic, i.e. its important to your customer so it becomes important to you if you use it in a way that brings value to your customer and helps you make the sale.

I think the first point is self explanatory. There is certainly evidence enough out there that when you really believe in your product, you are a consumer, advocate or fan of the product (Think Apple) you have an almost religious zeal about singing the praises and doing your best to convert others to your way of thinking - be that family, friends or potential customers. It can be much the same way when you really identify with and believe in the purpose behind the brand your represent - it can motivate you to promote and sell that brand as you are doing something good for everybody.

Simon Sinek, author and inspirational speaker, probably put it best when he said, "Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we care about is called passion."

The second I may need to share some thoughts on. As with most things when you are aligning with a client interests it pays to be genuine or transparent. If a client has an important purpose related issue you don't have to pretend that its the most important thing to you too but you can still look to help the client in what they are trying to achieve. And in helping them you are helping yourself develop relationships.

As an example though I believe that workplace diversity is a very important issue, as I am a small business it would not be top of my purpose agenda to have policies on this (Though I work with many partners so it is an issue I am sensitive to). However it is very important to one of my largest customers. So I invested the time to find an expert that could take part in an internal virtual discussion event with managers at my client's to discuss the most important challenges and solutions. A very interesting and successful event that has helped the client relationship.

It also may be a current requirement, or possible future requirement that the client's suppliers are aligned and following the same policies so then it does become very important. If not a requirement it may be a company or personal preference for them to work with people that have similar policies in place - so if you, or your company do not, you may have to initiate some changes to comply now or in the future. This is certainly a trend when it comes to environmental concerns. Companies pursuing "net-zero carbon" policies, generally try and achieve that over their own supply chain because often its further down the supply chain, not their own companies, where the big differences can be made.