Sell or Be Sold(5)
The skill of sales is so critical to a person’s survival that I don’t understand why it is not required study at school. The fact that it isn’t taught in school, that it isn’t required, or even offered, only further indicates the immense value of those who do learn this skill. It’s my observation that the most important skills needed in life aren’t taught in school. I spent seventeen years getting a formal education, and I can tell you that I have learned more from seminars, audio programs, books, and talking with other successful businesspeople at conferences than I learned in all my formal education. No successful businessperson would exclude basic selling, persuasion, and negotiation skills from a list of those things that helped him or her along the way.
A person’s ability to persuade another is the only thing that will ultimately ensure a position in the marketplace. Academic records, grades, and résumés won’t guarantee you a promotion or advancement in life, but the ability to sell will. All students should be required to learn basic persuasion skills, basic negotiating, and basic closing techniques, as these are fundamental to life. No other set of skills will better determine the likelihood of a person getting a job, much less being a success in life, than the ability to persuade, negotiate successfully, and convince others to act.
As an employer, I don’t always hire the smartest person or the most qualified person to fill a position. I’m much more likely to hire the person who convinces me he can do the job. I look at the person’s ability to persuade before I look at the résumé. Will I like being around this person? Is this person a winner? Does this person exude confidence and a positive attitude? Can this person convince others to take action? I’ll hire the persuasive, positive, and confident applicant hands down over the one who offers me little more than a fancy résumé.
It’s been said that almost a quarter of the population on the planet is involved in selling, but whoever came up with this estimation confined their thinking to an industry and a job type. It’s incorrect to think of sales in this way. Selling is an absolute must for getting along in life. Breathing, eating, and exercising are not careers for most of us—they are fundamental requirements for living. So it is with selling. Most books written about sales are about the career of selling and exclude how vital it is to life.
My wife constantly asks me, “How do you always get your way with people?” The answer is simple—because I want to. I want to have a great life for us! Because I try to get my way? Oh, yeah! And because I know how to sell, how to persuade, and how to close the deal and get what I want! Whether she knows it or not, my wife is one of the best salespeople I’ve ever met. She’s passionate, persistent, and always seems to get her way—and not just with me.
This book is going to teach you how to get your way in life!
CHAPTER ONE QUESTIONS
In the past week, what are three things that you accomplished that required you to use your sales skills?
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What does the author suggest is the number one reason a business fails?
What are three commissions other than money that you receive in life?
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What two skills will ensure a person’s position in the marketplace?
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CHAPTER TWO
SALESPEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND
SALESPEOPLE DRIVE ENTIRE ECONOMIES
Career salespeople are vital to the dynamics of any economy. Without salespeople, every industry on the planet would stop cold tomorrow. Salespeople are to the economy what writers are to Hollywood. It’s been said that even God and the Devil need good salespeople.
Selling is the last great truly free-enterprise opportunity available today; in sales, an individual can work for himself, be accountable to himself, and make his dreams come true. Literally, with a pen to sign contracts and a commitment to excel, you can become whatever you want! For those who are willing to commit to selling as a career and to continue to learn how to master it, there are no limits. Do so and you’ll be rewarded with all the treasures that exist. Learn the great art of selling and you will never be without work, because you’ll always be needed by others. Learn how to control the entire cycle of selling from start to finish, and you’ll have the confidence to go where you want, do what you want, sell whatever product you want, and know with complete conviction that you can have whatever you can dream.
The world would stop turning without salespeople. If a product isn’t sold and moved on to the public, factories stop, production stops, there’s no need for distribution, no need for storage, demand for shipping is reduced, and advertising stops. The burden of the entire economy of our culture today rests on the ability of salespeople. The economic engine of society relies completely on the ability to get products into the hands of consumers. If the consumers don’t buy it, the factories won’t make it.