There are a lot of sales experts and sales trainers that teach sales skills, tips, and tricks – how to cold call, how to generate leads, how to close sales, where to find prospects, how to upsell, how to ask for referrals, and the like.

You can do a search on Google and find thousands of results from people teaching you how to sell. Most, if not all of these, are just tricks or gimmicks. If there's a problem with your sales results, they'll normally tell you that your techniques are wrong. But not many will tell you that perhaps there might be something wrong with the product that you’re selling. Perhaps it’s not you – the product might be bad. And, no sales gimmicks will help you sell a product that nobody needs or wants, no matter what the so-called sales trainers tell you.

Of course, some of these sales techniques do have merit but what is not right is when somebody tells you that you can sell anything as long as you apply the proper sales methods; that is not true – You cannot sell ice to an Eskimo no matter what the so-called experts tell you.

What does this mean to you and your sales career? It means that if the sales numbers are not up to par, it may not be that your sales skills are lacking or that you are not doing a good job. It might just mean that your product sucks. Don't be afraid to sell a product that sells itself!