Who in this world does NOT need to sell something? Whether that is a product, a service, an offer, an idea, or even a person… everyone’s selling something. Or someone.
Let’s quickly itemize a few kinds of people or organizations that sell…
- Companies selling products or services? Check
- Companies selling employment benefits? Check
- Potential employees selling their skill and work ethic? Check
- Bosses selling the potency of their authority? Check
- Lovers selling the eternal nature of their (ephemeral) love? Check
- Organized religion selling eternal bliss? Check
- Husbands selling their charm, wealth and trustworthiness? Check
- Wives selling loyalty and beauty? Check
- Children selling love and peace? Check
- Parents selling promise of a future benefit in exchange for current services? Check
- Colleges selling future employment opportunities? Check
- Publishers selling thrill? Check
- Politicians selling their ideas and image? Check
- Hollywood celebrities selling their celebrity status? Check
- Musicians selling their skill and fame? Check
- Tycoons selling their brand and name? Check
- Field experts selling their elusiveness and exclusivity? Check
There is literally no way you can get around selling. You can’t avoid it. You must do it. You do do it. There’s no way you can live without selling something to someone at some point of time.
What matters is whether you will execute your sale effectively, or ineffectually?
If you go around believing that you don’t need to sell, you need loads of good luck, because that is all you will have every time the inevitability of the need to sell manifests itself.
Sell you will, of course, but if you think you are above selling, you will ill execute your sale. Or lose it altogether, and not close it at all.
Every time you ask someone to do something, you are asking for a sale. Even if you are asking your girlfriend or wife to bring you a glass of water, it’s a sale you are making. The only difference is how well that sale is made. You can do it the right way, and she’ll be happy to get you that glass of water no matter how much it inconveniences her. Or you can do a really bad job, and she’ll piss and moan and be grumpy about it, if she even bothers to get your glass in the first place.
If you are an employee, a hired gun, then you need to constantly sell your ability as well as your willingness to do whatever it is you have been hired to do. To not do so would be endangering your position as a paid employee. And if you are really smart, you will not only sell your skills and dedication, but also your irreplaceability.
As a lover you need to sell excitement every day. As a spouse excitement and commitment.
As a prowler for high quality job candidates sell the tangible benefits, but much more importantly, the intangibles too.
As a job hunter, sell the relevance of your experience, and the authority of your resume.
Only a fool believes he or she can get by without selling. No one can. Nobody does. Just that most people do it in oblivion, and therefore in an ill executed manner.
— Lakshya Behl