From the full episode: Without Sales, There Is No Business

Selling is the profession everything else stands on, and corporates routinely disrespect it. That is the argument Lara Morgan, founder of Pacific Direct, makes in this clip from The BEYOND Podcast with Aleksandra King, and she built a 20 million pound exit on the back of it.

Respect the sales mechanism, she says, because without selling something, nothing else happens: no product, no payroll, no purchase order, no business.

Full transcript

Lara Morgan: I wonder whether there's a jealousy because the truth is- Yeah … we can't deliver without operations. But the truth is in this situation there is no chicken and egg. Without a bloody purchase order, you do not have a business.

Aleksandra King: Yeah.

Lara Morgan: So you better respect the sales mechanism because without selling something, you have

Aleksandra King: Nothing. They're often not, not respected as they should be.

Lara Morgan: I

Aleksandra King: Agree. They're not as valued as

Lara Morgan: They should be. It's a pr- but it's a profession. It's such an issue. It's … But that's because stupid humans, in my opinion-

Aleksandra King: Mm … Lara Morgan: reflect on the sales class as a homogenous bunch. Yeah.

Lara Morgan: Right? And there are service sales. There are all different ways of selling, right? Mm-hmm. You know, there are door, the door-knocking guys who learn to be some of the best salespeople in the world because they're used to having the door shut in their face. The door shut in

Aleksandra King: Their face.

Lara Morgan: I have a friend who's genuinely- Developed skills and … Yeah … made a shed load of money, and that's how he started.

Aleksandra King: Yeah.

Lara Morgan: And then there's the insurance salesperson and the estate agent that we don't tend to love.

Aleksandra King: Mm.

Lara Morgan: And the banker because they're annoying, and they look like a Shylock. But let's be grown-up, right? These are all services that we need.

Aleksandra King: Yeah.

Lara Morgan: It's how we behave.

Watch the full conversation: Without Sales, There Is No Business