Having worked with literally thousands of small businesses all over the world, one of the biggest concerns I hear from business owners goes something like this:
“Ewwww selling! That’s icky. Gross… No I am not in selling. I am in the service business, or I am a professional.”
Of course this is pure, absolute nonsense.
Most people have been programmed to be afraid of selling and of salespeople.
I can certainly vouch for that, having literally sold millions of dollars of advertising to small business.
The mindset with many of them is that they are offended by the term “salespeople.”
Their mindset or beliefs do cloud their judgements, and these could be costing them money and profit to the bottom line.
Here’s the TRUTH about selling:
Selling is the oldest profession. Oh, I know what you THINK is the oldest profession, but in reality it had to be sold first.
I am reminded of a story of two hitchhikers standing on the side of the road about 200 metres apart, both holding signs alerting the passing cars of the destination they want to go to.
On one sign it says “New York Please”
The next, slightly larger sign says “My Mum lives in New York. It’s Mothers’ Day!”
Which one would you pick up?
One of the best secrets to selling is the ability to build rapport. Do you think there was some element of that in the second sign?
Most people are programmed to think that is not selling. It’s something else, but if you think about it, would the world be a very different place without sales and salespeople?
Can you imagine the time it would take every time we went into a store, or visited a professional, if we had to do all the research ourselves? Would our lives be different?
Imagine if we did not have salespeople to show us the latest TV or computer. Or the doctor simply prescribed medication based on what we thought was wrong with us without an examination?
The entire commercial world of retailing and professional services would be very different.
Good selling
— Mike