It's All Selling... All the Time
Many people say that they do not like sales, can’t sell, don’t like having to try to sell or making some snarky comment about the ‘slick’ sales types that they know. It is such a limited, dare I say naïve, view? We are all selling all the time. There are the typical sales of products in a store, commercials on TV and the like…also the indirect sales effort with the increased use of product placement in the entertainment media. But when you are sporting a hangdog around others, there is selling then too…you’re selling that you are miserable and not to expect much in the way of enjoyment while in your company.
Not much particularly astonishing there, right? Well, I agree. But then why are so many clueless about how to sell effectively. Henry Ford, one of history’s most famous industrialists (and also one of its most infamous anti-Semites) put it pretty simply: “The secret of success is to understand the point of view of others.” Not very complicated, kind of intuitive…makes complete sense. Put another way, it is not what you want, it is what they want that matters.
But we are frequently not very thoughtful about it.
Apparently this is difficult to comprehend for many and impossible to swallow for some. A relative of mine owned a home, decided to move to another part of town, bought another home. Set about selling the first one. How much is she asking…”well, I paid $160,000, put another $20,000 in it, and I want to make a profit so I am going to sell it for $200,000.” Well, that’s what she wanted…so the house sat because that was not a market price and all the potential buyers knew it…they wanted a deal that reflected the market.
Small deals, larger ones, it doesn’t really matter. The mistake is made constantly…instead of strategizing around the concept of what’s in it for them, those on the other side of the exchange, we are often all too busy focused on our desired outcomes, what we want/need. How often have we heard recently that the economy will rebound when the consumer comes back…70% of the economy was driven by consumer spending so when it returns, we will all be fine. That was the position of a fund manager that I talked with recently explaining why his consumer product private equity investing fund would do well…they know what they are doing and when the consumer resumes his leading place in the US economy, they will make a lot of money.
Well, gee, that’s great…but do Americans want that right now…to lead the economy to a new round of prosperity by buying more stuff…more credit card debt, more home equity loan debt (if you could even get it), and continuing with insufficient retirement savings…I don’t think so and so I don’t imagine that we are going to get back to that consumer driven model very soon. But it is easier to be a pundit, a journalist, a talking head in prosperous times so that’s how they view it because that is how they want it…but they are selling it not buying it and the American public clearly isn’t either.
Speaking of buying and selling, this deafness to the desires of others even extends to gift giving. Recently published research [Give them what they want: The benefits of explicitness in gift exchanges Francesca Gino & Francis J. Flynn] showed that recipients appreciated receiving items from their wish list more than unsolicited items, and perceived the requested items to be more thoughtful and considerate. But in direct contrast, the givers thought that recipients would be more impressed with unsolicited items. Give them what they want…hell, what they asked for? Oh no, I have a better idea…I know what they’ll like…I will get them this pet bird to keep them company…everybody is giving iPads, this is much more thoughtful, clever, and original. Squaaaawk…
Come on people get a clue…put yourself in their shoes, stop looking in the mirror…what do they want and how can I frame what I am doing, selling, arguing so that it responds to their needs and desires and, at a minimum, their perceived benefit.
More soon…or whenever the spirit arises.