If you’re like most people, the idea of selling fills you with fear and dread. Maybe it’s the fear of rejection or the cheesy sales pitch. Regardless, it’s not an activity many of us look forward to. Yet in reality, you sell to people every day. If you didn’t, it would be very hard to survive in this world.
If you’re like most people, the idea of selling fills you with fear and dread. Maybe it’s the fear of rejection or the cheesy sales pitch. Regardless, it’s not an activity many of us look forward to.
Usually the image that comes to mind is that of a used car salesman - a backslapping, glad-handing, insincere person with a gift for gab, and a pressure close. Very few of us want to see ourselves like that.
Yet in reality, you sell to people every day. If you didn’t, it would be very hard to survive in this world.
When you have a discussion with your co-worker about your feelings on global warming, you’re “selling.” When you persuade your child to pick up her clothes, you’re “selling.” When you change your spouse’s mind about where to go out for dinner, you’re “selling.”
Without this selling it would be extremely difficult to get the things you need from others and to get others to appreciate what you have to offer. So the problem is not with the activity as much as it is with our interpretation of the word “sell.”
What would happen if, instead of selling, you practiced the “art of persuasion?” What could you accomplish if you understood selling to simply mean the goal of educating someone else to see your point of view?
How would that change your feelings about the activities involved?
Knowing how to persuade and influence others is definitely one of the key skills that anyone who is successful possesses. Depending on our particular perceptual style, each of us has our own way of persuading and influencing.
So, if the word “sales” gives you the willies, discover your style and learn how to influence others naturally!
Here’s how; practice. Today, intentionally set out to influence or persuade three people. Try something silly with no pressure. Notice what specific behaviors you use that seem to have a positive effect and what behaviors seem to “turn people off.”
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