We are always selling ourselves. When we meet someone new, when we need a favor, and when we’re trying to get a point across— even without realizing it, we’re selling. ’s shelves are stocked to the rafters with millions of books and media about selling. There are countless people who make their living, teaching people how to make a living, selling. And yet even though every single human being is involved in selling every single day of their lives; sales gets a bad rap. Yesterday, I was reminded why salespeople often have a bad reputation. Here’s what happened. I called an advertising agency called to see about hiring them to do a campaign for Prayables. My call was returned by a very nice saleswoman named Linda, who asked me a few questions about what was needed, and offered some good ideas of how they could help. We spoke for about fifteen minutes and set a date for later that week to review her proposal. If you’ve ever been really “sold to” recently you know that sales people don’t want to talk to you anymore. They want to “present” to you, and that means Power Point. I spent one hour viewing a slide show that was basically a commercial for OPM. It was strikingly similar to sitting through a vacation timeshare pitch. UGH! Read next feature >