The Brick Wall of Sales
On a walk. A common brick wall. Or what sales feels like to some people.
I read a lot of books about business. At the moment a lot of them are about sales. They are filled with good advice and realizations based on research.
There’s a lot to be gained by reading them. Things to try out and ways to sharpen tools.
For the most part they are written by masters of sales. Which is why I have a suspicion that the good advice delivered are hard to implement for many of the sales shy people I talk to. The small business owners, or - with a modern word - the solopreneurs of our time. It’s too hard to relate. Sales feels like voluntarily running in to a brick wall, over and over.
So, sales tips aren’t relatable. Maybe with the exception of Dan Pink, the author of several books about how to be in business, including To Sell Is Human (2013). Dan is the former speech writer of Vice President Al Gore, and has a background in politics and government. Named 6th most influential management thinker 2019 by Thinkers 50.
In To Sell Is Human Dan argues that we all are in sales. To sell is to move others. We move - or attempt to move - others all day long.
Translated into my and many’s world: It begins at the kitchen table in the morning. “Could I get out of my afternoon chores, mum, pleeease? I have to go to my study group after school and after that there is a game of football with the boys. It’s important that I do my homework and also that I have time to exercise.”. Mother moved. No chores in the world are more important than my teenager's advancements in school and his health status. Nothing to be said, other than “Okay, sure.”. Even with the addition of praise: “I’m so happy you take care of both school and your body”. Mother super moved.
This is sales, in Dan’s and my words. We all do it all the time and we all are more or less good at it.
Translated into our modern times of work, most of us need to move others in all work related endeavours. Whether we are employees and have a boss in a corner office or we are employees of the boss who is staring at us, stressed out, worried and hollow-eyed, in the mirror.
The ones that have to make a sale during the day are...well...almost everyone. We have to sell a new project to the boss, or sell a change in the project to a client of our company, or sell the best way to work inside the project to our colleagues in the project group.
Or sell our product or service in order to pay rent and eat, we realize that we h a v e t o s e l l as we have moved into business for ourselves. This modern way of working suits many of us. It’s a wonderful way of being the boss of me, owning my time and being proud to deliver the best I can, every time.
If only I didn’t have to sell.
The problem seems to be that the words Sales and Selling are connected with a vivid imagery of someone pushing, forcing, overstating, talking too loudly, and having only greedy reasons for making the sale. On the other end will be someone depleted and regretful.
And we don’t want to be the kind of person who pushes and greedily grabs every opportunity to win at others expense.
Here comes the very intuitive and no brainer idea, that changes that perspective. An idea that seems so hard to realize deeply:
Anyone in front of me is just like me.
And like my mother, my child, my partner, my friend, my respected professor or mentor, my beloved grandmother or funny neighbour. My colleagues or classmates. Namely someone who I never would cheat or push or step on. But that I easily would try to move when my interest doesn’t collide with theirs. When my interest would benefit them, even.
We wouldn’t hesitate to firmly try to move our partner into choosing not to go on that adventurous vacation when we realize we need to repair the roof of the house this year. We would move our friend into choosing a different restaurant than the one they had their eye on, since we realize the one she had chosen is loud and crowded and all we want to do is relax and talk out the latest events of the week. We move our children to do their homework, with a little negotiation and appeal, so they later have time for gaming or whatever. No hesitation.
The same can be made true inside our small businesses. When we remember that our prospective customer or client are the same as me and anyone I love, trying to move them isn’t an act of egoism. In fact, when we have a service or product to sell, that we truly think is of service to the world, of service to the person in front of us, moving them into seeing the same, is an act of service, an act of love even (or act of Respect or Care, if Love seems to fluffy). When the value of my product or service is higher than the value of the money they part from, any explaining, reasoning, pitching that product or service is loving (respectful/caring).
A person I extend my love/respect/caring to is a person I can move. I can be as firm and persuasive as I want when I see that, I say what I say because something in life or business will be better for my counterpart if I make that sale.
And this is the conclusion of these winding thoughts:
If we start with a new notion of what sales is; why we sell our services or products and who the person is that we sell to, we can transform how we take on this, for many, very delicate area in our businesses.
Brick wall about to wither.
From this new notion it’s possible to get out and try stuff, sharpen tools and read books that can help us expand, explore and succeed with what we want to accomplish.
Love
/Johanna