Sales vs. Marketing and How To Get the “YES!”
Silas Mahner is a Catholic businessman working on the fifth module of the Praxis program. I was interested in speaking with him because he is an active member of our online forums and I always appreciate his content. He is currently a marketing specialist with Perspektive Media Group and owns his marketing and branding agency, SEY Social. It also happens that he successfully sold insurance for 1.5 years with Knights of Columbus and has a lot to share about what he learned on the job.
What made you choose a marketing role now, coming from a sales position?
My position now is honestly more of a sales development role. I enjoyed my position with Knights of Columbus, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do long-term. Ultimately, this marketing job was offered to me. My understanding was I would be doing marketing and some sales, but now it’s mainly sales.
I always loved marketing — it was one of my favorite parts about selling insurance. I would create mailers and emails to make people interested in meeting with me. I wanted to take the psychology behind sales and apply it to marketing. When you think about it, no company would get anywhere without sales.
What would you say is the main difference between marketing and sales?
With sales, it’s basically the same thing all the time. Marketing changes on a monthly basis because you have to be utilizing every asset you have, like the different seasons, current events, and news stories to your advantage.
How would you respond to a “no”?
It depends. The first few days of selling, it was not so nice. It took me a while. You have to understand, I had no experience in sales before I started. I never thought I would be a salesperson. I wanted to be a business owner. You basically have to learn how to sell no matter what. Once I got good at it, I learned how to get them never to say no straight-up. What I would do is provide hard dates and times for them to show up.
There are certain times when you can’t pivot the “no.” A lot of times you can. But you have to be persistent. I took it personally for the first three months. It takes a long time to get used to the mentality. After a while, you realize it’s not the end of the world. There’s a certain number of things you can do to turn the “no” into a “yes.”
What is one thing you wish you knew before you started selling?
It would have been nice to really know the product and how to onboard. For me, it was about selling the idea of financial security to my clients. That wasn’t too hard for me, but I had self-doubt about what to do next, as in where do I sign once I get the “yes.” I was so afraid I would have gained their confidence and lose it somewhere in the process. I would have liked to have a straight-up checklist of how to onboard.
I learned all of my soft skills on the job. The biggest was how to slow my speech down. I also learned how to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Going into strangers’ houses. Asking them personal questions. Telling them what to do with their money. I had no basis to be confident in accomplishing this. The only way I got comfortable in those situations was by doing it often and going through my memory of what I did/said with my boss to audit the ways I could improve. The way I was able to perfect it was because I had a clear image of what success should look like. If you envision yourself achieving success, then your subconscious will make it happen.
What was the most difficult part about selling?
Being able to be comfortable making an official ask at the end. The way you make it less difficult is by getting small yesses along the way. Lay the groundwork so it becomes less of a big thing. Once you get to the end and you ask the question, remember whoever speaks next loses. You have to be quiet until they say yes. If they don’t, you ask “Where did I lose you?” I always put myself in their shoes; if I were them what would I buy from me?
One last piece of advice:
If you’re going to take a sales role: you’re going to need to really believe in the product, especially if you’re just starting. I’m a very honest person, so I can’t sell something I wouldn’t buy myself. Find a sales role that you’ll actually make good money in. It should be highly rewarding, but also something you believe in.