What people get wrong about selling
By: Christopher Hamilton
Tags: Sales, People, Life, Learning, Skills

Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

The word ‘salesman’ leaves a bitter taste to the uninitiated. Truth is, we all must learn to sell to be successful; whether it’s a complex product, or a simple idea among peers. But what does it mean to sell?

In my early days in business school, our professor of marketing once asked the class to define what ‘marketing’ is. Our esteemed — and rather outspoken — colleague Ms Goodman quipped: “Marketing is about tricking people into buying things they don’t need”. The professor’s face turned pale. “Ms Goodman, Nooooo!” He cried in despair, like Luke Skywalker learning his father’s true identity. After a brief pause, our well mannered Professor quickly composed himself, and continued…”The essence of Marketing… it’s about delighting people”.

I speak of marketing, but if marketing is a book cover, then sales is the text. The two subjects are inextricably linked. I reckon many people have a sentiment toward Sales that closely resembles Ms. Goodman’s thoughts about Marketing; that ‘selling’ is about tricking or manipulating people into making decisions that suit the salesperson. Some individuals will surely approach sales in this manner; and you’re free to take this fast lane if you wish. On the other hand, if you wish to succeed, grow, and most importantly ENJOY the experience of selling — I’d like to offer a different narrative.

To sell is to help others

My first meaningful experience selling was as a boy scout, clumsily peddling fertilizer and golf balls door-to-door as a young lad. It was a harrowing experience, and with the benefit of hindsight, greatly underappreciated at the time. But young Christopher was perceptive enough to take-away three important lessons:

The first two lessons were more inward looking. Namely, I found that pre-sales anxiety was almost always over-exaggerated — it could be fun talking to strangers. Second, and I think this is broadly applicable to life in general: if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. Even the slightest preparation and thoughtful strategy was better than zero; the scouts that prepared best, succeeded most. But it was the third lesson that was most enduring:

Selling isn’t about what you want, it’s about helping others discover they’re better off with your solution.

Success is an outcome of being good at helping people discover value with minimal friction. For instance, there were plenty of retired households in my neighborhood. Because these folks had plenty of free time, their gardens received heaps of attention. Now plants need fertilizer to grow, sure, but why would they buy it from me at a slightly elevated price? Well, it wasn’t because of my charming pimply face and awkward crackling voice. As it happens, fertilizer bags are heavy, slippery, and bulky. With the help of my father and the family minivan, we delivered the pesky fertilizer bags directly to our neighbours’ lawn. I remember noticing how elated our customers were, realizing their backs would be spared a trip to the gardening center.

It was then that I understood what we were doing. Any neighborhood gardener that fetched their own fertilizer was a back injury in waiting — they would be silly not to talk to us!

Great selling can be learned

Humans are clever, social creatures. We have cultivated the art of problem solving, persuasion, and collaboration to advance our species to the top of the food chain. It should come as no surprise then, that these very same qualities distinguish the most successful in business from the ordinary. Let me break this down for context:

1. Can you adequately frame a problem, think critically about it, and offer viable, value-added solutions? Core skills include: (critical thinking, numerical analysis, business acumen, etc) 2. Can you clearly articulate your motives, and cultivate intrigue so that your audience will be drawn to your point of view? Can you then be compelling enough for this same audience to believe your ideas are meaningful? Core skills include: (story telling, domain knowledge, writing, orating, active listening, etc) 3. Can you work effectively with others both inside and outside your tribe to deliver an effective solution? Core skills include: (organization, communication, transparency, etc)

Each principle on its own is powerful, but the holy grail is to nail down all three. The best salespeople master the underlying foundational skills, so they may answer each rhetorical question with a categorical ‘YES!’. These skills come naturally for some, but they can be learned by anyone with a little effort.

The shots you don’t take

I’d like to offer a parting anecdote: the notion of a salesperson archetype… it’s bunk! Success in this domain results from a genuinely positive attitude, self awareness, authenticity, and a continual harnessing of the core foundational skills. It doesn’t matter what you are: gender, ethnicity, shape, size, personality type (hello introverts!), etc. What matters is your execution. Anyone can be great at selling, I’ve seen this with my own eyes.

And so, as the venerable LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow used to say, “don’t take my word for it.” Have a go and see for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.