Sales Reps Can Be Posers

Poseur: a person who attempts to impress others by assuming or affecting a manner, degree of elegance, sentiment, etc., other than his or her true one.

I like the French spelling here – it seems more elegant.

A poser is a person that must fake performing since he has no clue what he’s doing. A related concept is the Interloper which is a person being where they don’t belong or have no right to be. Like a wedding party crasher.

Posers have no claim to the title sales rep. They are often just visiting from some other failed career or depressed industry. Real estate is replete with posers – every time the market is up they swarm in like locusts during a plague. When that market turns down, off they go looking for some other easy money gig.

Posers can slip through the cracks of a recruiting system and infect the team. But they can’t hide for long. Soon it becomes obvious they are nonhackers and incompetent. It’s not just that, it’s the lack of involvement, blaming others, and couldn’t-care-less attitude. There is but one cure. Show them the door (and give’m a kick on the way out).

Posers piss me off. I have absolutely no patience for them and won’t give them the time of day. And neither should you.