Have you ever thought of a career in sales? What if I told you, you already have a sales career, and in fact, you are constantly selling in every area of your life? It’s true. Everyone sells all the time. Let’s look at the Oxford Dictionary definition of sell:
give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.
persuade someone of the merits of.
What Are You Selling?
These two definitions are important because not all selling requires the exchange of money. Selling involves persuading. Persuading is part of practically every human interaction. To sum it up practically you could say:
To earn an income, you sell your time and services.
In every relationship, you sell yourself, or a version of yourself to the other person.
In other words, every activity that involves earning money or interacting with another person is selling. That is life is it not – to work and interact with other people?
What are some of the ways you sell at work? Primarily you exchange time and effort to create value for the employer. The work you do is all about getting things done to earn a paycheck. To do this you are routinely persuading them your work has value and you are doing a good job beyond what you produce.
Whether you work in an office environment, in a service job, as a consultant, or in any other profession, you regularly interact with other people. Whether they are a colleague, a boss, a subordinate, a customer, or whomever, you are selling yourself to them and they are selling themselves to you. It could be something as simple as the image projected, the words said, the work produced, or whatever. In the end, you are buying or not buying them, and they are buying or not buying you as a person.
Me, Selling?
Ah, but you say, “What about when I volunteer?” Well, the person or organization for which you volunteer must “buy” that you can do what is required as a volunteer. If they do not buy that you can do the work, you will not be volunteering for long.
So, you say, “Yes but the selling stops when I go home to my family.” Does it? So long as you are interacting with another human being selling is occurring at some level. Your wife and family continually “buy” that you are a responsible, mature, honest, capable person. And you present yourself as such. Whether you consciously or unconsciously do so is irrelevant. The fact is that they are “buying” the person you show up as, just as you are “buying” the person they show up as.
A Life of Selling
And so life goes on. They are selling, you are selling, everyone is selling. If you or any of them don’t buy, difficulty ensues. I believe human beings are happiest when they are buying and selling, or selling and buying, what they want. It’s when you or they decide not to buy something the difficulty begins. It also becomes difficult for you when people do not buy what you are selling, and for them when you do not buy what they are selling.
And so, life continues, ‘round, and ‘round, and ‘round, it goes…
When it comes to selling one of the truest statements ever made is:
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
That is what makes the world go around – selling people what they want. Help as many others get what they want, and your life will not only improve, but you will live an exemplary life!
Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.