Do you have to believe in your products to be a great sales person?

I love this question which was brought to my attention during a LinkedIn discussion. Here's my reply to that group:

You're a singer (like I was years ago), it's 2:00 AM and you have one more set to do. At the same time you're exhausted and you have a cold. What do you do?

You're a triathlete (like me now), it's 90 degrees as you begin the run. Someone hollers that you need to catch one more guy and you win your age group. What do you do?

You're a professional sales person, it's the end of the month and you need to make your numbers and bring home the bacon and make customers happy... all of it.

Let me ask you this question: Why are you working where you are working? No one forced you to be where you are. So the question about what you believe in and don't believe in is a silly question. If you are being paid to perform, then perform or get out. Professionals BRING IT for one reason and only one reason, because they said so. Our power as people rests in being able to give and keep your word. A.) to yourself and B.) to others. When we give our word honestly and we mean it and we are professionals, then even asking this question is silly. The answer to the riddle is found in answering the following yes or no question, "Are you a great sales person?"

Also, when you get into it, deeply, there really is no such thing as sales. One of the reasons people suffer about being great at sales is because they don't fully understand what being great at sales is.

Question? Was Bernie Madoff a great sales person?

Looking strictly at the numbers, there was a time, when many would have said, "Bernie is a great sales guy!" But the reality is he was a con man. So does greatness in sales show up only in the numbers? Or in belief in what you are doing? Or is it something else?

I say that the word sales describes another phenomena where people use specific language and human energy to design a mood of trust (the key word is design) and then within that mood of trust, make commitments (in time) to take care of someone else's concerns and ask the other to commit in return. The act of commitment by one human to another is paramount. It's one of the most fundamental acts of being alive and yet most people and most sales people are lost and do not understand the dance of commitment or something I call the Language Of Commitment.

The issue has nothing at all to do with the product, but with one's competence when it comes to building trust and both making commitments and asking for commitments. True professionals have figured this out and so this question is not an important question. True professionals would not have to worry about believeing in the product. If they didn't think the product/service was good, they would not represent it in the first place.