“Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”
– Ayn Rand
There seems to be a serious reluctance on the part of entrepreneurs to ‘sell’ the amazing things they have to offer the world. For some reason, selling makes people feel deceptive, slimy… like they are somehow tricking the person they are trying to sell to.
Selling has a bad rep. But, why? Where did this come from?
Many salespeople have quotas for the number of sales they must meet each month. They are paid a base salary, getting most of their income from commission on their sales, trying to sell something they don’t even believe in, to people who don’t need what they have.
Now, don’t get me wrong… numbers are good. Tracking and rewarding performance is also fantastic. But, sometimes it results in losing sight of the original point of sales – connecting need with the solution.
Instead, the salesman’s best interest (making money to support their family) is sometimes in conflict with their customer’s best interest (getting something they truly need to meet a need or desire of theirs). This pressure to earn a living ends in frustration and wasted time for both sides.
This is not what I mean by selling.
Selling is:
Connecting a person with a problem or a desire = to the solution they need
Selling is planting the seed of future possibilities in the mind of someone who can now see that possibility too, because of your vision.
The simple reality is that people have problems that they need to be solved.
YOU have the perfect product or service that will solve their problem or get them closer to their desire.
It is your duty to connect them with that solution.
Your customer is not an idiot or fool. They are your neighbors. Your mothers, husbands, children, friends, and family… If not yours personally, then someone else’s. They are fellow human beings. They are not OTHER, they are YOU.
Treat them as you would want to be treated. You must have utter respect for them and a desire to enrich their life in every interchange you have with them.
Selling is a conversation and a connection. The fact is we are all constantly selling whether we realize it or not. We are all persuaders, wired to sell from the moment we are born. We convince people to hold us and protect us with our adorable baby self. We learn how to capture someone’s attention with a smile, how to win friends to our point of view, how to convince our parent’s to turn their ‘no’ into ‘I’ll think about it’, and how to get that boy to ask us to the dance.
We learn how to develop deep connection and meaningful relationships that bring value to both parties. Our entire life is selling our point of view to convince others; connecting with others to share value and work toward common goals in a never-ending system of exchange.
The great customer/client relationships that are the most profitable and meaningful are long-term win/wins for you and your customer. You would never sell a product or service that would in any way trick, harm, or injure your customer; no more than you would do that to a friend. Work to sell products and services that enhance your customer’s life and make the world a better place in the process.
