This observation on sales puts things in perspective
As social creatures, the art of convincing is crucial
I recently learned a great deal about sales and wanted to put it all down on paper, so here is an article on sales.
Brief Introduction: using logic and emotion
Starting out with the more obvious, sales is the art of convincing. Done through appealing to either logic or emotion, it’s about eliciting an action from another person — not just in having a customer buy a product that is being sold, but also in getting permission from a manager to conduct research in a certain direction, cooperating with another company on a joint venture, or convincing a group of friends to go eat at one place over another.
Sales as it relates to transactions in business can be classified as business-to-business (B2B) sales or business-to-consumer (B2C), where the former comprises of deals done amongst companies and the latter consisting of a business selling goods or services to a consumer. This Quora post provides a better explanation of why B2B is more based on logic, selling the other side on the product’s features and how it will add value while B2C relies more on emotion, how the item can make the buyer feel.
Principles: Not just sweet-talking, sales has processes
Of course, there are natural-born salespeople; however, sales is a skill that can be learned. The most important part is grit, being able to persevere through it all, particularly when being turned down — something that will happen very frequently. The below principles also help paint a brighter picture:
Law of Averages → something is bound to happen eventually because it is statistically possible to happen
Significance: as long as there exist people who will say yes to your proposition, then you will eventually succeed after trying a good number of people. If there is a 5% chance of success, then out of 20 people, 1 person will say “yes” while 19 say “no”.
Red, Yellow, Green → one heuristic is to assume that out of everyone you will encounter, 10% will immediately be unreceptive, 80% neutral, and 10% immediately receptive
Significance: to save time and energy, ignore the 10% who are red, capitalize on the 10% that are green, and work hard in convincing the yellow 80%.
Logic over emotion → believe in the statistics
Significance: this is extremely hard to do… nobody likes getting turned down! But to keep going, maintain a mindset that there are plenty of opportunities out there, and that eventually someone will say “yes”.
Tactics: in following these principles, one eventually gets better for humans are very adaptable. Getting over rejection and fear of failure is the most important task for the beginner: he or she will then be able to keep pushing through to reach the “green” people. On the other hand, a seasoned salesperson would focus more on converting the “yellows”, having already developed the grit to sift through the “reds” to find the “greens”. (I’m nowhere near experienced enough to discuss the art of closing any further)
Patterns: Notice what eventually becomes what
When entering a car dealership, there’s no surprise in guessing the intent of the first person that will approach once you enter. After all, it’s their job to sell you the car.
Such a role is very clearly defined and needs no explanation. However, a closer look at other roles can lead to interesting discoveries: I’ve bundled several positions into categories to explain how they all relate to sales.
Retail → selling to customers on-premise. Examples: employees at the clothing store, cellphone store, and car dealership.
In-person sales → selling to customers in the field. Examples: girl scouts selling cookies, door-to-door salespeople, AT&T U-Verse/Verizon Fios
Telemarketing → selling to customers over the phone. Examples: charities asking you to donate, universities asking for donations, insurance salespeople (not as much right now though)
Sales Development → business-to-business sales. The first stage in the B2B process, this person raises awareness of the product or service by getting the attention of the customer and getting him or her interested.
Account Executives → the second stage of B2B sales. Takes the interested lead brought on by sales development and explains the product/service including the features, pricing, and how it can help the customer. Works to get the other party to make the purchase.
Corporate decision-making → this is about convincing someone at your job to make a decision. Applicable to many situations!
Professional services → getting new clients or new business opportunities from existing clients. Examples: investment banking — new transactions such as a company to take public, or a company interested in help to acquire another company. Consulting — new mandates, tasks that a corporation would want consultants for. Fundraising — private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds looking for more clients’ money to manage.
Entrenpreneurship → building your business. This could be everything, getting people to believe in it. Examples: raising money from venture capitalists, developing partnerships, obtaining new business.
Note how sales applies to so many jobs. For young professionals, it’s important to know the career trajectory for the paths in fields such as consulting and investment banking. They start off in an analytical role to eventually become a high-level sales and relationship management position.
Outside of jobs and careers, sales is everywhere. It is a part of human interaction. A skill from since the beginning of humankind.
