Selling isn’t only for sales people

Have you ever tried to persuade someone about the merits of a new idea, service or initiative? Most surely you have. Countless times.

People do this all the time, since we were born; in our personal, professional and community lives. It is part of being human.

So how did your efforts go? Did you get their attention?

Did you manage to convince them to adopt your idea? Did you both get what you wanted out of the exchange? Did you feel satisfied that you made a positive impact?

Maybe. Maybe not.

It all depends on how well you were able to enlist all the skills and qualities of good sales practices.

You see, everybody lives by selling something every single day, whether we know it or not; whether we like it or not. Selling is when humans solve problems, realise opportunities and exchange something of value, together.

Selling isn’t the domain of people called sales people.

It is a human domain. The title of Daniel Pink’s book, To Sell is Human, says it all.

For those of us who have talents and capabilities we want to take to market (and isn’t that nearly all of us?) we need to harness the positive capabilities of human centred, ethical selling practices.

Without this essential life skill we cannot realise our own potential. 

Are you putting a brake on your career progression, the success of your startup, the financial viability of your business, and so on, by not selling?

What difference could you make to your life by embracing the idea that, no matter what your role is, selling will always be a vital part of it?

If we think about selling as a vehicle that we can use to drive us to different opportunities this can help us embrace our inner sales driver.

If we think about selling as the vehicle that allows opportunity to flourish and people to prosper then we can’t wait to get behind the wheel and start driving.

Selling, like a vehicle, has a framework, a structure and power, and we need instruction and guidance in how to drive it. But once we have mastered the basics, we are off and away and the world of opportunity awaits.

Yes, there are trickier levels of selling just like there are trickier levels of driving (i.e. driving trucks, Formula One, Dakar Rallies and so on). But all of these can be learned.

Just as there are those of us who drive by the rules and those who choose to flout them, there are good and bad ways to sell.

How we drive and how we sell is our choice, but most people can learn how to do it and make it part of our everyday practice. Selling is ubiquitous in our daily lives yet it is poorly understood and usually left to chance. It doesn’t need to be this way, Selling is a necessary life craft that can be mastered.

We know that selling better is the best way to realise opportunity because it’s about being human centred; it’s about ethical practice, it’s about long-term and sustainability, it’s about mutual prosperity. 

Whether you are in a technical or engineering function, accounting, law, any service, support or back office function, working in government or the not-for-profit sector, professional services, the arts, and so on, join us on the journey and learn how to sell and embrace your inner salesperson. You might just enjoy the ride.

Remember everybody lives by selling something. 

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