The Art Of Strategic Selling

Have you ever think of a great idea but fail to convince the decision maker? Or often fail to suggest a place to eat for lunch?

Not so long ago, me and my team from UX Research wanted to join a hackathon held in our office at Blibli.com. We had what we think as good ideas to improve our service but when we shared the idea and invited the tech team to join us to build it, no one seems interested.

What happened? Why? The curiosity brought me to learn more about selling :)

The great Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson once said:

“Everyone lives by selling something.”

Most of us don’t realize that we do sell something every day. Are we? Am I? Really?

YES! Selling doesn’t belong to marketer or seller only.

Sell is a verb, an activity. It means to persuade someone about something, and we do it in our day to day routine, whether we realize it or not.

For example:

- A high school grad wants to take Psychology major in University while his parents want him to become a lawyer. He has to “sell” his choice to his parents. So does his parents, they will try so hard to convince their son to choose Law instead of Psychology.

- A mom who wants her kid(s) to like eating vegetables. She will try any methods to make the kid(s) eat and love it.

- Someone in love start to dress nicely or offer help to get attention from the crush.

- Someone who shares dream(s) to their partner. How they share, how they influence their partner, it is selling.

- A worker with his/her ideas for improvement or a team who want to share their project’s report. How they present, that is called selling.

- The one who looks for buy-in from management or stakeholders.

- or in a job interview, we must “sell” our strengths, skills, capabilities, or experiences.

From those examples, I think we are all a natural born seller, but somehow when it comes to selling, we often fail to bring our thing what we have into the light. We don’t see ourselves as a seller of anything and sometimes like to say “I cannot sell.” “I am not a salesperson.” etc. You have to be aware that your words are your reality and as I mentioned earlier, sell is a verb, an activity, that means we need to do something to make it happen.

Based on the observation, those who are skilled in selling, who are able to influence people, who are able to bring ideas to real, are used to earn one of the most coveted thing: approval. This approval provides support in all forms, from public backing to funding to access to a new network and opportunity.

To get that approval, we need to brush up on our selling skill! Here are a couple of ways to do it:

A Set of Hard Skills

Are competencies such as numeracy, literacy, fluency in a foreign language, and specific job-related technical abilities (operating a machine, creating a spreadsheet, touch-typing, driving, dressing a wound, and so forth). Typically these skills are relatively easy to measure, and are often validated with some form of qualification. (Oxford Reference )

A set of hard skills we should keep exercising are:

1. Mastering your “product” knowledge

To be able to sell well, we must know every detail of the “thing” we are going to sell. We must understand it inside out to be able to answer all the 5W1H questions from our targeted audience. Furthermore, we have to believe in the “product”.

2. “Packaging” skill

Believing the product is one thing, the other important thing is how to present or package the information.

How we deliver the information clearly and effectively, how to deliver an inspirational or captivating presentation or sharing session are several key skills to get your message or opinion across.

Presentation skill is an example of hard skill.

A Set of Soft Skills

Are competencies that associated with activities such as customer handling, communication, problem-solving, and teamworking. The definition of soft skills sometimes includes loyalty, enthusiasm, punctuality, and a strong work ethic. (Oxford Reference)

A set of soft skills we should keep exercising are:

1. Knowing your “customer”

When it comes to selling,it is not about you anymore, it is about your customer. The ability to assess who they are, what they like, what they need, what their problems are as important as mastering your “product” knowledge.

2. Communication skill: listen and communicate

Dan McAuliffe wrote in his article:

“Selling is often perceived as a pushy practice, but the best salespeople do the opposite, they pull! Through conversation, active listening and solid research, salespeople pull valuable information from their audience and use it to steer the conversation. Understanding what others value creates a connection and allows us to craft the perfect pitch. Selling an idea abides by the same principles. Nearly anyone can be a potential advocate for your idea as long as you listen and learn their needs.”

Be sure that we bring real value to our prospects on a personal level. Make them feel the same passion as we are.

3. Empathy: be in their shoes

Sometimes the resistance occurs not because of the idea but more about the failure to put our self in our “customer” shoes.

We often forget to map the situation: Are they in the holiday mood? Is it release time?

We need their assistance to build our idea, most of the time they have to go extra miles to do that. What’s in it for them?

So be empathetic. Always put yourself in your customer shoes!

Now that we know the hard and soft skills, we should also recognize thatbutselling does not just stop there. We also need a strategy to deliver a meaningful value in everything we sell. We have to be able to combine the skills, mapping situation, and data then wrap them into a selling strategy: how to deliver the value the right way at the right time and the right place.

After learning these, now I understand why we failed to sell our hackathon idea.. it is because of the lack of the selling skills: poor packaging and bad timing!

To excel at selling, we must keep practicing, keep trying to sell, evaluate, and improve… because experience (or what us Indonesian call “jam terbang”) will make us better.

Happy selling! :)

If you’re interested in applying for a full-time position or intern as an UX Designer or UX Researcher, Blibli.com is currently hiring! Send your resume to recruitment@blibli.com and get the chance to work with other UX Designers with their own unique stories.