Sales is Easier Than You Think. 2-minute Guide to Great Salesmanship

Sales is easy. I used to think it is sleazy, involves lying, cheating and all sorts of unethical and unreasonable things. But in fact, sales is a very straight forward activity.

Sales is easy when done in a community you feel connected to.

Sales is a community-based activity. If you are part of a community you feel connected to, you will find it very easy to sell. All you have to do is to check the validity of the pre-conceived notions you have inside you about sales. Here are a list of pre-conceived notions people usually have about sales:

1. Pre-conceived notion number 1: Sales is about lying

Actually, sales is the most ethically sound profession in its truest form. It involves being an expert about a subject and seeing how it could assist someone, and who that someone could be. However, the person who is selling could decide to lie or not. So being ethical is a call that an individual makes. However, lying has no relation to the actual activity called sales. Actually, sales become really easy in the long run if you do not lie at all.

2. Pre-conceived notion number 2: Sales is for those who are less qualified

Though masses have the perception of salespeople like so, but this is far from the truth. This may appear so because doing sales does not need any certificate from an authority like other professions such as that of a Doctor, lawyer or engineer to practice in the public. But ask anybody; the real good salespeople are the experts of their domain. Like they know their trade inside out. They know the inside of the trade, and they know about the outside in terms of the competition companies as well. So in a way, they are experts.

Here is a quick tip. If you really want to see if the salesperson who is selling you something is actually trying to solve a problem or just tryin to sell you something, ask them a lot of questions. Ask them about the product or the service they are selling. Ask them about their company, their competition and anything relevant and related to the product or service they are selling. A good salesperson is supposed to be an expert in their domain.

3. Pre-conceived notion 3: Sales involves tremendous pressure and chasing numbers

This usually happens when you are being paid primarily for your time and secondarily for the results you bring in. When one is being paid for the time, then it becomes essential to have someone monitor that the time is being utilized for organization's work. Most people like to cut corners in their jobs because for most people, jobs are a means to an end and not the end in itself. If one is working something s/he finds worthy and feels connected to the cause, s/he will be invested so much into their jobs and they would never try to cut corners because of the natural joy they derive out of the job. This way the job becomes the end in itself and whatever money and connections you generate out of the job become an add-on.

So yes, if someone is trading their time for the money, they are going to be supervised. And since most supervisors are interested in churning out results, they will laden their team with numbers and targets. But if you actually like your sales work, you will naturally be invested in it and you will find that sales happen on their own. The targets, numbers and pressure will fade away into a blur.

How to makes sales easy for yourself:

1. Find the domains that interest you. Its pretty easy to find them. Wherever you devote most of your time and thought effortlessly during the day is your domain of interest. Whichever topic you like to read about and talk about is your topic of interest. Make a list of them.

2. Now think of how you would like to contribute in those domains. Make a list of your skillsets and find out how you could assist them. This becomes your Resume.

3. Now make a list of all the businesses in the domains of your choice and see which product or service they sell. This is your market research.

4. Find out how the products and services could help people. Those are the USPs or the Unique Selling Propositions of the products and services, in MBA jargon.

5. Find out how to reach the people who could be benefitted with the products and services. Those people become your prospects.

6. Find ways to reach out to them. It could be via door-to-door, social media, email, phone call, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, ads, anything.

Find communities you care about, and sell there. Its that simple. And you will love it.

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Sincerely yours

Siddharth Soni