“CONVINCING ME TO BUY?” It’s Old School

Imagine for a few seconds that you wander into your favorite store with an intention to buy. You are kindly greeted by a sales person who asks “How are you today?” You of course respond with “Fine thank you” hoping to be left alone. A reasonably well-trained sales person will sense your desire to be left alone, but will continue with one or two more questions. She has been coached to make a sale, get you to buy something, etc. So instead of following her intuition, she asks something like “How can I help you?” or “What brought you into the store?”. On the surface, these questions seem innocent, nor do they take up much of your time. However, they are all about getting you to talk so she can convince you to buy something. It's VERY old school.

The sales process has changed. Not only in tactic and strategy, but also how it is perceived and taught. Unfortunately, many are still unaware of the changes, thus still using the old scripts that never really worked to begin with. This is not an indictment, just a statement in fact that I intend to impact in a positive and efficient way.

Following is one of my FAVORITE quotes which is now the foundation of everything I do in life: “CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THINGS, AND THE THINGS YOU LOOK AT Will CHANGE”. If I change the verbiage to reflect our subject matter, it looks like this: “CHANGE THE WAY YOU VIEW SALES, AND THE RESULTS OF SALES WILL CHANGE”. And if you think this statement too airy for you, then here’s the truth about sales:. The role of a sale person is not to convince another person to buy something. It cannot be done. The role is to facilitate a conversation, finding out exactly what the customer wants, and helping them make the best choice for themselves. In other words, a sales person is not DOING anything to the customer (such as: “Here comes another customer, I have to go greet and sell them on buying …”), they are helping them help themselves.

I can feel some reader chatter: “ Thanks for the deep thoughts, but what exactly do you mean?”, or “Thanks Captain Obvious, but could you be more specific?”. And better yet “ Why don’t you change the way you write about sales and the quality of this message with change”. If you know anything about my mission, it is to get this type of thinking stirred up and out in the open. It tells me people really want and need more information.

When I say “it’s old school”, I am trying to get you to think differently. Humans cannot create change in themselves without reframing the way they view their roles. IF one of your roles (and goals) is to live life as a highly successful sales person, then begin with yourself, change the way you look as sales, stop trying to convince to buy your stuff, and start helping them help themselves. If you do that on a daily basis, you will exceed your goals.

If you want to dig deeper and learn more, contact me here: michael@michaelupp.com

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