No buyer is concerned with your product or service (yes, you too have one you are selling). Your buyers (yes, you have those too) are only interested in what your service or product can do for THEM. How will it benefit THEM? So, embrace selling even if you are not a salesperson
Embrace selling even if you are not a salesperson. Selling is not just a factor of goods or services exchanging with money. Selling is persuading one to cross over to your side; to accept your stance because you have shown them how they will benefit. For example Great teachers, sell the benefits of learning to their students, by carefully curating their delivery. Understanding their students aversion to fasihi and reading, they will first play bongo music instead and have students who love the genre, interpret the literature therein. Energized and motivated the sdents will eagerly chambua the set book. Good teachers will tell students that the set book will be examined. Great doctors and nurses sell the jab to their queasy patient; good ones, tell them to roll over. Let’s not go to okay teachers and nurses, let alone bad ones.
Being human the “buyer” wants to know what’s in it for him. A benefit is anything that will elicit an emotion for him to act in your desired direction. As such, those not in professional sales limit themselves when they say they are not selling, when every day they are engaging in teamwork, communication and persuasion. Shrugging off this limiting view will see them soar.
Read: Benefits sell features tell. Here’s why
Why selling is important when doing a presentation internally
For instance: I still see it to date. Someone from human resource or finance laments, usually after a lengthy PowerPoint presentation, that, “I have already told the salespeople that the company keeps 90% and them 10% in commissions for every sale made. But they still aren’t budging. I don’t think they are motivated; we may need to recruit a new lot.” That’s until the seasoned sales manager comes along, congregates the same sales force, and ten minutes later, like persons possessed, they emerge fired up to go sell.
The perplexed (suspicious, more like) HR or Finance Manager asks, “What did you tell them?” “Salespeople have a short attention span, so I simply told them that they will earn 10,000shs on the spot, and in cash, for every sale of 100,000shs they make.” You must be wondering what the difference is, huh? It’s simple. The Sales Manager spelt it out for them without any fluff.
When asking for a salary increment. Embrace selling even if not salesperson
Here’s another reason to embrace selling even if you are not a salesperson. Few employees have a gall to ask for a salary increment. Fewer still persuade the employer enough for him to agree. They struggle to show the employer how he will benefit with the increment. What value will he get with the price increase? Even if it is glaringly apparent that you need to be equally compensated for successfully holding down two jobs, very few employers will readily do so. You must ask for it.
You must sell. And when you do, you must show how the employer will benefit. It is not sufficient to say that with the increment you will be motivated. Or, worse, that you will meet your personal obligations. No. Better to say, and assuming you have it, that, “I have this job offer from someone who wishes to poach me. But I really enjoy working and growing here and don’t want to go (meaning it is cheaper for you to retain me). Based on my consistently high performance, I know I will perform even better when adequately compensated.” Or: “I have been holding down two responsibilities for three months now and competently so as per your observations. I’d like us to discuss how I can move from what I am currently earning to what would be adequate compensation.”
When a culture change is desired
Here’s a third reason why embrace selling even if not a salesperson. I wrote this a year ago. The greatest stumbling block to transforming an organization’s culture is this. It’s not seen as selling, which it is, and worse, those selling it (leadership) don’t see themselves as salespeople. They sell the feature of the product to employees. “We are performing below industry standards and must transform to survive.” Yet, as noted by McKinsey & Company, employees are not hugely motivated by their employer’s reasons for change. Employees are more moved by what the change means to them.
Value for the employee could go beyond the organization to, say, the customer, or community. Assisting the employee support a cause he cares for is more likely to get him committed than, “We must transform to survive,” the report says; and, it concludes, that, “The perception that behaviour is a “soft” topic leads managers to assume they can rely on their own instincts, an approach that seldom leads to sustainable long-term change. Instead, managers need to take the time to understand some of the factors that influence human behaviour.” In other words, learn to sell.
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