The Reason Why Everyone Needs to Learn Sales

The Reason Why Everyone Needs to Learn Sales

I once met a guy. Let’s call him Tom. Tom was very smart. He had a gift for technology and worked hard. This guy had several degrees, qualifications, and read a lot of books on IT. Bottom line, Tom was brilliant at his job as an IT consultant at one of the big 4 firms in the world. Through his brilliance, he eventually made it to partner. Things were now different for Tom. He found himself struggling. Now he had to go out and network and meet all these strangers! This made Tom uncomfortable. He sucked at building rapport. And the more he spoke about how much he knew, and all his experience, the more these strangers switched off. He found this rather odd. Each time a potential client gave him an objection about why they didn’t see value in the engagement, or why the project was out of scope, he had no idea how to respond, and sometimes he even got into arguments.

Have you ever come across someone like this or have had a similar experience?

I’ve spoken to many individuals like Tom and most initially believed that their skills and talent alone were all that mattered. But usually, that’s not the case. If we don’t know how to build rapport, ask effective questions, negotiate, and build lasting relationships, then talent and brains won’t get us far.

For many people, “sales” is a taboo word. It may make them feel uneasy too. What they may not realize, is that we are all salespeople if we like it or not. Whether it’s selling yourself on a first date, selling your skills and attributes at a job interview or just trying to grow your business. We need to firstly accept and embrace it or be the person in the corner of the room enviously watching everyone else get ahead. It doesn’t matter how talented, smart, technically brilliant and certified we are. If we have no idea how to communicate, influence and network effectively, then we won’t get very far.

Many people may not realize this, but without sales and marketing people in their organization, their job may not even exist. The salespeople in your company are the ones driving growth.

Many organizations understand that in order to grow and succeed, sales is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone is taught sales, from the receptionist to the CEO. I recently met a director of a big consulting firm in Australia who told me that they have huge slogans all over their office walls with the sentence ‘Everyone is a salesperson.’

So, what is sales and how can we make it work for us as non-salespeople?

Firstly, we must be aware that there are two types of salespeople. The 1990’s pushy salesperson type and the consultative salesperson who is there to serve and help you. Always aim to be the second type.

A good consultative salesperson:

• Never looks like they are trying to sell, but solves problems.
• Avoids pitching first without asking questions and listening.
• Talks no more than 30% in a sales meeting.
• Never pushes a product on a person who doesn’t need it.
• Does not use high-pressure sales and trickery.
• Has high integrity and the client’s best interest in mind.
• Never treats the customer as a number or KPI.
• Confident and doesn’t fear rejection.
• Walks into networking situations and think, ‘who can I help today?’
• Has high EQ, as they are able to self-regulate their emotions and are highly motivated.

There are a lot of advantages to learning this art and science of building relationships, communicating, as well as understanding psychology and human behavior

Are you a non-salesperson who needs to sell and has sales targets in your organization? If so, what are some things you may need to do to make it work for you?