Are you one of those individuals who do not consider yourself a salesperson? Let’s take that a step further. Do you hate selling? Possibly your area of responsibility within your company is strictly operations or finance, so you may feel that you do not have to do any selling!
WRONG!
Everyone in your operation is selling all the time. Just consider this:
• The finance people have to sell reductions in budgets to top management.
• Operations has to sell the need for new processes and systems to the head honchos as well.
• Owners and executive management need to sell everyone new ideas and goals for the entire company.
Therefore, no matter what our responsibility is, we have to be able to sell.
Fortunately, all of us have the ability to sell. Here are some examples of how we have been selling most of our life:
1. At an early age, we had to sell our parents on the idea of letting us stay up later than our usual bedtime.
2. If you have children, remember all the selling you had to do for them to eat something they did not like but was good for them. How many of you can remember some of the things you did to sell them on the fact that they should eat what was offered. You probably had to use multiple closes.
3. Selling was also involved when you first met your spouse. How much salesmanship was involved in trying to sell them on the fact you were the best catch in the world?
I think you get the point. All of us have the ability to sell, and we have been doing it all our lives.
The key component of sales is having the knowledge of the product or service we are selling. It is important for you to be able to identify the benefits that will be received by the person you are selling to.
Buy-In Selling
If you have oversight of an operation, undoubtedly you are always looking to increase productivity without decreasing quality. The increased productivity may come from:
• New technology
• Change in cleaning routines
• Retraining of staff
Any of the above requires you to get the buy-in from your team. You cannot just say that the changes will be made, without identifying the benefits to the staff. We all have the ability to sell. I would venture to say that some of the best salespeople in our industry would never call themselves a “salesperson,” but in reality, they are right up there with the best in the pack.