So what exactly is sales? In vanilla English terms, a barter of any kind is a sale. Who is a sales person? Anyone who is facilitating the barter, and what exactly is being traded? You must be feeling absurd as the incontrovertible answer is a product or a service and the underplay can be highly contextual. What if I tell you at any given point in time in any barter a person is being sold? Surprised? It's actually true; a buyer will buy the person first and then the product or service. So the most significant colour in the picture is you, yes my dear, you. Interesting right?
Statistics show as much as 22% of the sales is impacted by customer experience, and in the middle of that statistic are two people, sales executive and potential client, two people wanting to connect with each other 1:1.
There is enough data available in our real time windows to see that sales is both an art and science. It has a cliched connotation but can still be understood adversely dependent on one's mental makeup at that very moment. Sales is an art because it demands people to be creative thinkers, and science because the inherent approach needs to be data driven or practical.
An excellent Sales person is the one who
- Believes in himself/herself
- Is a patient listener
- Is friendly but professional
- Is honest and Enthusiastic
- Is able to connect with the person as a person first
- Personalizes the communication
- Thrives to be remembered for the right reasons
- Utilizes relationship intelligence
- Doesn't get bogged down by rejection
- Delivers on commitment
We are all born with an exceptional potential of sales concealed deep within ourselves that we never discern. Take a tour back your memory lane, in your childhood you were selling your communication skills through debates, growing up was busy in selling ideas for parties, with teens being on your side you were selling your charm, grey hair days went by selling business ideas to clients and wooing students from campus for team-building; so all through your life you were merely selling your individuality as a unique creation of God.
We are being sold the same thing but we are constantly negating the thought of buying it. Actually sales is a part of our DNA but we had been putting it on snooze whenever there was time to evoke it. All this, only for the love of saving our nose from the axe of judgements. Do you actually feel that the bubbles of judgements that people have will stay for life, and how much exactly does that bother you?
In today's fast paced life, nobody can retain impressions. Do you actually feel the judgements have any space in our memory; the same memory which is like cache and can't take beyond a certain capacity so we need to continuously look for superfluous data to be erased, the same data which doesn't get attached to any meaningful context. Let yourself loose in being yourself and go out to share what you believe in. Build the right peer group, connect with the like-minded, hold your spirits high and keep a check on your intent, our unique ideas and thoughts are valuable. If you are comfortable in your skin then relationships will start brewing naturally. Everyone wants a suitable and addressable solution to their needs and then sales becomes a bridge between what you know or have and what the person standing in front of you needs.
Frankly it took me time to have soaked enlightenment as I ventured out in the corporate world as a technologist well covered up to be guarded against sales, in fact my biggest regret till date is declining a sales opportunity knocking at my door early in my career. Slowly and steadily, but faster than a tortoise, I realized what sales means and how it can impact my corporate journey. My transition to this side of the table came as a result of shift in my thought process and heightened belief in myself. My role now as a person responsible for culture and team building is as much target and data driven as is sales. Welcoming a team member holds similar level of criticality of decision making if not more than acquiring and harnessing a client. Client on-boarding is usually related to revenue as a marker, while a new joiner is to do with culture fitment and enhancement, growth roadmap, stakeholder interest management, business upliftment and so much more. It's like welcoming a new family member and a change in your outlook can make a huge difference to where the company can be in both short team and long term.
A sales oriented mind-set is the liberty to enhance your inner self's adroitness to a world full of opportunities, and I am betting myself on it through my experience which I happily offer to everyone to pick from.
