What’s behind a good salesperson?

“Selling” is a test which we should all measure ourselves with. It would make us stronger, whatever the result. In spite of what is said, namely that “everyone sells“, I believe that the “true sale” has nothing to do with the small daily parallels.

As a father and salesman by profession, I say that “selling” the idea of ​​playing a game rather than watching a “cartoon” to my daughter can be even more difficult than selling to a customer. But they are two very different things.

Real selling is what occurs between strangers. And it occurs in the absence of trust, or even better, in total faith, but also “sold” in a few moments. If you want to sell, you have to make sure that people have confidence in you. This is the first and most difficult challenge.

That is why “cold selling ” would do everyone good, to overcome their fears, and sometimes even their own ego. It is an activity that brings you back down to earth, because if you want to get results (long-term ones), you have to be humble and sell to enrich people, not for you to get rich. To a CEO, I would say the same thing. No matter how, when and why you got there, go and sell from time to time, so that you understand the world. It could have drastically changed since the last time you sold something.

There are some people that say to me: “But every day I sell ideas to my collaborators” and I say: it has nothing to do with it. It is a shortcut, a way to pretend that you haven’t lost your touch. I sincerely believe that many companies are in disarray because the workforce no longer sells, or they do it from a desk, which is like swimming but without wanting to get your costume wet.

In the film “Promised Land” Matt Damon explains the reason behind his success:

“They know me. And I know them (…). I grew up in a large farming community. Football Fridays, tractor pulls, cow tipping, all of it. I was also one of two in my graduating class who went to college– well, who decided to pursue something other than agriculture. Biggest fight my grandfather and I ever had.”.

I can tell you there is nothing more useful than knowing the other person’s world, nothing more effective than looking at the world through the eyes of your customer. There is nothing more powerful than a healthy and sincere respect for his condition. The “true sale” is a spontaneous purchase and it occurs when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. You in his shoes and he is relieved by the solution that you have proposed to him.

But, while doing good to everyone, selling is not for everyone. It is not for those who believe that it is sufficient to have a method, or for those who want to get rich in a short time. To seriously sell you need a noble purpose, a bit like in the movie “The Blues Brothers”, when Elwood says, “We’re on a mission from God.” The sale is hope, relief, solutions and a better life. Just like Steve (Matt Damon) says in the scene:

“We had a Caterpillar plant down in Davenport a few miles away. My junior year in high school they closed it down. I remember thinking nothing of it. By the time prom came around I got to see, first hand, just how little legs we had to stand on. The whole farming town fantasy was shattered. And what became real clear was that without that plant, without that industry? We had nothing. And the town was just… I’m not selling them Natural Gas. I’m selling them their only way to get back”.

Today, the role required by most companies is a “salesperson”, the role that people are less willing to do is the “salesperson”. The one whose name is “sweetened” or “complicated” in recruitment campaigns is the “salespersons” (“consultant” or “sales product manager”). But what bad reputation has this profession got?

I have become a serial businessman, but I owe it all to selling and ethics, because when you put these two ingredients together, there is nothing that can stop you. It suddenly becomes the most beautiful and highest paid profession in the world…

“… and in case I don’t see ya…

good afternoon, good evening and good night!”…

(The Truman Show)

Virginio