Selling Is Communicating
Selling is much more than a survival technique. It is a whole panorama of interesting and challenging skills, experiences and learning opportunities. It’s human interaction, education and motivation. Ultimately the ability to sell is the ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of diverse people.
Is it a talent? We often hear about ‘natural born salespeople’ who somehow have an edge over the rest of us. We repeatedly convince ourselves that we have no such natural ability until the words resonate in our heads whenever we consider selling. I don’t believe in natural sales ability or the lack thereof. What I do know is that some people have persistence and motivation and work constantly on their skills and that these people make great salespeople. They also make great bakers, consultants, graphic designers, athletes and politicians. They tend to be attracted to working on their own and succeeding or failing on their own merits. Sound familiar? It’s the same profile that leads to choosing self-employment as a way of life.
You’re A Natural
We all have good sales skills when it comes to getting what we want, especially when we’re young. Children regularly gather information about a desired toy or event and batter their parents relentlessly with that information. They use sales techniques that would make the slimiest used car dealer back off including blackmail, intimidation, acting out, hunger strikes, declarations of war and withholding of love to achieve their desires. When they win it is usually because they have eventually discovered the secret to all successful sales: Solving A Problem. The fact that they may have created the problem in the first place doesn’t mean that it is any less dire by the time their parents cave in.
Problems and Solutions
While you could employ the drastic sales techniques you used as a child in your business I doubt they would work as well. We’re adults and we don’t accept such behavior from our peers. Even if we did buy, we would never return and would undoubtedly steer others away from such a nasty individual. Because the success of most self-employed people is dependent on repeat business and referrals, the unrepentant childlike seller would soon be out of business.
Fortunately there is an important lesson embedded in these childhood experiences. The way to get someone interested in your work is to offer a solution to a pressing problem they have. You don’t need to be a quivering bundle of raging charisma to do this. You simply need to make a connection, learn about the problem, present a valuable solution and ask them to do business with you. This is the basic process of selling which underlies every transaction between humans: Meeting, gathering information, identifying problems, offering solutions and agreeing to terms. This site was written to help sales people like yourself understand sales as a process and to learn that process so you can apply it your individual business.
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