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Everyone is a Salesman

What is “Sales”?

Selling is a skill and this skill is present in everyone, yeah every individual. Knowingly or unknowingly everyone is a salesman. The word “Sales” has changed its perception over the period. It is not a job done by a “tie’ wearing person, and it is getting more meaningful nowadays. It is not about telling a lie or creating hype, but it is about using the right influencer at the right time. The Influencer can be a person or a condition.

What is “Sales”? Telling truths convincingly is “sales”. We all do this thing in our daily life. But only a few can do this thing with a stranger and they are called Salesman.

In my first assignment, I had an opportunity to be a mentor of a newly joined Sales Executive. After a few days of joining, he was a bit frustrated and we discussed that.

“Sir, I feel I have made a wrong decision by choosing ‘Sales’ as a career. I thought it was the best way to use technical skills and improve my personality through public relations. But here I came to see that everyone was running just after Numbers. In front of Channel Partners and customers, we show our different personalities. There is always another person most of the time in front of them. I always think of myself as a different person. It’s not me sir. Every emotion and action is fake here.” He was annoyed. Those were the words of a young engineer who inherits ideological things more than a practical thing. I just wanted to welcome him into this practical world.

“Dear friend, I will not say that you are wrong. You are right but views are different. Let me explain the reality. First, forget sales, I will take the example of a normal life incident. You might have gone through this in your teenage but if not then imagine a condition when you just entered in teenage and you are demanding a Bike from your parents. I guess this is a normal thing and most teens need a two-wheeler at this age. Isn’t it?” I was to get him in the discussion.

“Yes, It is, but this is a different topic. I am asking about Sales & Figures and you are talking about teenagers & Bike.” He was a bit impatient.

“No Dear, I am still on topic. I just want to show a practical application of sales where you are not a salesman. Ok, so assume that condition. And your parents feel that you don’t need it at all. You can manage with your old bicycle. In that condition how do you convince them?” I asked.

“I will try to put all possible reasons for demanding a new Bike and will try to convince with future benefits like saving time, more study hours etc.” He answered.

“But what if they are still not convinced?” I continued.

He thought for a second and then replied “In my case, I took the help of my Grandfather. I convinced him on the emotional ground and then He did the needful talk with my Dad to bring a new Bike for me. That has happened to me.” He smiled remembering his old memory.

“That is sales. You had decided your target first and that was your BIKE. Then you went to your DAD who was the real authority to approve your request. You told real reasons and tried to convince him best but when that did not work out then you went to an influencer and there you took the support of your emotions and finally after putting pressure on your Dad you achieved your target. In our sales life too, we decide our target and that is an assigned NUMBER which we need to achieve every month. To achieve that Target we try to find the right person who has the authority to buy, in our case that is called a customer. We try our best with all technicalities and we try to prove the superiority of our product like we do for Bike over Bicycle or other undesired models of Bike. Few understand the points and buy from us and for those who don’t understand, we use other factors like influencers and emotions. This is not FAKE but a tact which is built up over relations we have made in the market. So You were doing sales as your teenager when you were not in this profession. Not only this at every stage of life and for many small things you do the same. Being an engineer helps you to convince your customer of the quality of the product and that is always the first idea you use everywhere.” After completing words I felt he had realized the similarity.

“Hmm, that means every person has sales skills or we can say a hidden sales acumen inside them.” He laughed.

Yes, every person is having sales skills but only a few can use them to make a career. So, you can say that everyone is a salesman.