Most salespeople earn the reputation they get.
Say the word “salesperson” to a stranger and watch what happens. The eye-roll. The story about the guy who wouldn’t stop calling. The flat “no thanks” before you’ve said another word. That reaction did not appear out of nowhere. An industry of broken promises and disappearing acts built it, one bad experience at a time.
I have felt that reaction land on me before I opened my mouth, just from the title on my card. For a long time I told myself that was someone else’s problem to fix. It is not. It is mine, along with everyone else who calls themselves a salesperson and still wants to be trusted.
So this year I did something most people in this business will not do. I applied for accreditation with the Better Business Bureau. The Tonkin Group holds an A+ rating.
That single line does not sound like much. Here is why it is not nothing.
A BBB rating is not a marketing badge. It is a public record, kept by a third party, of how a business actually treats the people who hire it. Twenty years ago, a bad experience with a company got complained about at dinner and then forgotten. Today it takes thirty seconds to leave a complaint that stays visible for years, and the same thirty seconds to leave praise that does the same. That visibility is exactly why most companies stay away from accreditation. It does not just measure your marketing. It measures your conduct, in public, permanently.
Most businesses avoid that measurement on purpose. I asked for it on purpose.
Not because I am flawless. I am not, and I will not pretend to be. Projects slip. I miss the mark sometimes. What I can control is what happens next: a real, visible channel where a client can say so, and a business that has to answer for it in public rather than smooth it over in private. What I can promise, every time, is that I will strive to be the best I can be in delivering for the people who hire me. Now there is a record that holds me to it.
Trust in this business is not won with a pitch. It is won the same way an A+ rating is won: one delivered promise at a time, verified by someone other than me.
If a salesperson has burned you before, I understand why you would be careful with the next one. I am not asking you to take my word for it. I am asking you to check the record.