Sell. Sell? Sell!

The sales "game"....well that's only for sales people, right?! Wrong! No matter what we do as a profession, no matter what level education we have or what degree we hold, no matter who we interact with, we are always selling.

Imagine this.....I want my 6 year old to go to bed early because tomorrow is a big day. What do I have to do? Sell him on why it's a good idea.

I want my boss to give me the promotion and not the other guy. What do I have to do? (All things being equal between you and the other guy.) Sell her on why you are the better choice.

I want my cross functional partner to embrace a new concept for completing projects. What do I have to do? Sell him on why my way is a better way.

I want my spouse to take out the trash without me having to nag at him. What do I have to do? Sell him on why he should just do it without me asking.

I want my coworker to carry their weight and quit putting the burden on the rest of the team.
What do I have to do? Sell her on how her productivity is hurting the project.

In a nut shell, if we have any hope of getting others to cooperate with us we have to help them see that our idea and way of thinking is good for them.

Here is the key to the sales "game"; if I can help you see that you have an urgent need and then show you how I can satisfy that urgent need you will readily hop on board with my solution.

You see people will only do things for their own reason...not mine, not yours, not the companies but for their own reasons.

I once tried to get my boss to pay me a bigger salary for doing virtually the same work I am currently doing. I gave him all my reasons as to why I thought I deserved more money, it made perfectly logical sense to me. Well, the answer I got from my boss was a flat out "No!" So, the next conversation I had with him, I outlined how he was to benefit from having me do my same job with more money, I even added a few extra responsibilities I could take on to make it more attractive to him. So, what do you think happened this time? His response was "You know, I like this idea. I think this will work. Yes, we'll adjust your salary!" You see I tapped into what was important to him. I forgot about what I wanted and talked more about what he wanted.

Here is the one simple principle to live and "sell" by: "ALWAYS talk in terms of the other person's interests!" When you do this, everyone wins!!!

When have you had a win-win outcome with a boss or peer? What did you do to make it turn out that way? Tell us about it, we would love to hear your success!

Life Long Learners Achieve More

Some people look at training and education as a huge waste of time. They go to class, sit and listen to the instructor, go through the activities and exercises and a week later they don’t remember anything. In fact, I heard from one guy who retired after 40 years of service to his company; he complained that over the course of his career he had to participate in no less than 1,000 training events yet he can’t remember a single thing the trainers said. What a waste of my time, the trainer’s time and company money!

Here is what I explained to him. In the course of my lifetime I have eaten no less than 45,000 meals and I cannot recall what was on the menu for even one single meal. What I do know is this, had I not eaten all those the meals I would have starved physically and would now be dead. Despite not being able to recall everything we have ever heard in a classroom; the truth is this, no matter how good we think we are we are never good enough. Every experience in the class room increases our awareness, brings things back to a conscious level even if only for a short period of time. Learning and training experiences feed our attitudes and our souls; they give us the nourishment to help us forge ahead, even when times are tough!

The moral of the story here is to embrace learning and growing, without it we shrivel up and die.

Where do you want to be on the success scale? Somewhere at the top leading the way for others due to your thirst and quest for knowlege that puts you head and shoulders above others OR do you want to be buried under 6 feet of dirt with no hope at all for the future? It's your decision!

Let me know what decision you have made, post it here on this blog!