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Why Are Safety Professionals Not Good Salespeople

 

In the world of safety, it’s essential to understand not only the strategies and systems that make an organization safer but also how to communicate those ideas effectively to the people who need to make decisions. Most safety professionals, despite their expertise, often make poor salespeople when it comes to selling safety strategies because they fail to speak in the language of their audience.

This is a common issue I discussed recently with a group of safety professionals. It made me realize just how important it is to use the correct terminology and frame solutions in terms that resonate with those responsible for making crucial decisions.

Imagine a real estate agent trying to sell a home. Rather than focusing on the home itself, they talk about the backyard, the street, the gardens, and the neighborhood, without ever mentioning the house. It’s the same issue safety professionals face: while we’re talking about concepts like Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), High Reliability Organizations (HRO), and Appreciative Inquiry, these terms don’t always mean much to those who make the decisions—whether they’re operations managers, production managers, or anyone else in the chain.

The reality is that these decision-makers are primarily concerned with factors such as cost, production volume, and safety. Traditional safety measures and outcomes are typically more tangible to them. However, when we introduce concepts like HRO, we need to translate these ideas into outcomes that speak to these interests.

So how do we do this? How do we translate safety strategies into something a decision-maker can understand? We need to communicate the benefits of our initiatives in terms they value most—such as increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving production.

This shift in language can create a powerful bridge between safety professionals and decision-makers. By presenting the same ideas in a way that speaks to their core concerns, we create a dialogue that’s more likely to result in the buy-in and investment that safety strategies require.

I’d love to hear from other professionals about how they’ve navigated this challenge and what strategies have worked for them in selling safety solutions to decision-makers.

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