We All Are Sales People!

Our life is made up of “sales presentations” multiple times and on daily basis. Sometimes we give’em and sometimes we get’em. Sales may not be your gig, but yet, you do sales every day without even realizing it at times. Be it a pitch to your Board, announcing a policy change to employees, selling an idea to your spouse, friends, or just trying to win others over to your point of view – you need to upgrade your people skills for delivering winning pitches. Every time you try to convince someone to do something your way or even see the situation your way – you are selling.

When you realize most everything in your life is a sale, you’ll see how important it is to shape your sales skills. How much different your life would be if you could easily have people on your side, agree with you, help you with things and approve your ideas? You don’t need sales skill only if you work as a salesperson. You need sales skills even if you are a stay at home mom or dad. Don’t you need to convince your children to go to bed earlier or eat food? You need sales skills in virtually every situation… The book Overcoming The 15 Categories of Rejection is a priceless discovery of knowledge which can’t be found anywhere yet at this time. It opens our eyes at every possible situation in life, personal and business, where you have to have sales skills and it shows you how to win in those situations.

Human nature is such that people support solutions more often when they help create the solution, so involve them by allowing your audience to participate with their questions, suggestions or ideas. It goes without saying that to not involve key people is risky, because messages can be misunderstood and getting agreements takes skill. Your plans may be derailed before they begin if sufficient “buy-in” is lacking. You need to learn the 15 categories of rejection that exist in order to prevent them from coming up and overcome them when they do arise.

Remember support on key or controversial matters can be established ahead of time by lobbying, if you know where to lobby.

Have the stats to backup your ideas, have a mental arsenal of stories, examples, jokes, and ice-breakers to use when needed. To become masterful in this art, learn to maintain resources you can access for just the right thing at the right time. As the book, Overcoming The 15 Categories of Rejection teaches, “be several thinks ahead of your decision makers.”

The next thing you must do is to explain “why?” The single most powerful thing you can do to convince someone of something is to provide a convincing reason why they should do what you suggest or believe what you say. People want and need a clear “what’s in it for me” in order to be able to react positively to what you want them to do. It’s extremely important that you deliver a vision of benefits. Hearing the “why” won’t automatically generate a “yes” to your proposition, but it’ll open the door for receptivity to your idea.

Knowing and accepting the “why” satisfies a basic need that we all have – to understand the purpose of our actions. Use the words “because” or “so that” in your presentation and then finish the phrase. When your subject matter is controversial or likely to generate emotions, it is essential that your “why’s” be tested in advance. Ask some people you trust or that are on your “team” to play devil’s advocate to help you with your logic and arguments.

These are just a few tricks for being a successful “salesperson”. There are many more of them in the book, Overcoming The 15 Categories of Rejection. After studying it, you won’t see many things in your life the same way anymore. Life is a sales job from the beginning to the end. Hell, even babies learn how to sell their parents. From the moment that we discern how to get approval as children, winning friends at school, getting our first beau, getting our first (and subsequent) job, getting engaged and married, achieving our goals, and anything else you can think of in between – we’re selling ourselves or our ideas all along the way. Who said you aren’t a salesperson? So be the best sales person you can be!