Selling Should Be Like Breathing
Selling Should Be Like Breathing
As a teenager, I wanted to be a scholar. No member of my family had ever gone to college. I was able to win admission to the University of Hong Kong, which accepted only a tiny fraction of those who sought entrance. Later, I got into the University of Chicago, got my master~{!/~}s degree and then went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and obtained my PhD. All these degrees were very important in terms of training me how to write, read, think, imagine, articulate, and compete.
But it was my parents~{!/~} store that best prepared me for the life I now lead. To succeed on your own, you must learn how to sell. You must convince people that you are the answer to their problems, that you have the knowledge and skill that will help them reach their goal.
It~{!/~}s easier to sell a product than it is to sell your own services. Telling people how good you are feels immodest, even aggressive. And it~{!/~}s easy to communicate any discomfort to those you~{!/~}re trying to convince. Yet you have no choice but to learn to sell. For those who~{!/~}ve made their vows to stop being corporate courtiers and become wandering warriors of capitalism, selling should be a reflex.
In the beginning, we might sell just a little too aggressively. Our eyes are open a bit too wide, our voices are strident, our faces stiff. We are too self-conscious about selling ourselves.
It~{!/~}s important to remember that you~{!/~}re not truly selling yourself, but rather the help you can offer, the solutions you can provide. In a way, it~{!/~}s just as if you~{!/~}re selling face creams or mousetraps. What you have to offer is something you know will do the job. The product you~{!/~}re selling is not who you truly are, but rather the job you can do. Separating yourself from the service or product you offer makes it easier to accept rejection. If people don~{!/~}t buy, it~{!/~}s not because you~{!/~}re a bad person. Rather, it~{!/~}s because they don~{!/~}t think they need what you are offering. If you were a better salesperson, you might have convinced them otherwise. But just because you didn~{!/~}t doesn~{!/~}t mean you~{!/~}re a less worthy person. Once you understand that, you can relax while you~{!/~}re selling, which will probably make you more effective.
This is easy to say, difficult to achieve. Don~{!/~}t lose heart. It all comes with practice. I now know that when I began, people probably thought I was a nuisance and a charlatan. But I have had the opportunity over the years to prove to many clients~{!*~}and to myself~{!*~}that I can accomplish what I promise. My mere survival has prompted people to look at me differently. People who once showed disdain toward me began to show respect. They even started to like me. To my great surprise, they have come to consider me a guru.
In essence, if you fight a hundred battles, you may not be the boldest or bravest warrior; but at least you have shown that you are skilled enough to survive. And if you endure over time, and maintain your self-respect, you will win the respect of others. You will prevail.
Selling Should Be Like Breathing - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
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When I was a child in Hong Kong, my father was a wholesaler and importer of luggage and my mother ran a store whose offerings ranged from women~{!/~}s underwear to toys to toilet paper to Pond~{!/~}s Cold Cream. I grew up in the store selling anything to anyone who wandered in. This retail upbringing, in hindsight, trained me as a salesman without my knowing it.
As a teenager, I wanted to be a scholar. No member of my family had ever gone to college. I was able to win admission to the University of Hong Kong, which accepted only a tiny fraction of those who sought entrance. Later, I got into the University of Chicago, got my master~{!/~}s degree and then went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and obtained my PhD. All these degrees were very important in terms of training me how to write, read, think, imagine, articulate, and compete.
But it was my parents~{!/~} store that best prepared me for the life I now lead. To succeed on your own, you must learn how to sell. You must convince people that you are the answer to their problems, that you have the knowledge and skill that will help them reach their goal.
It~{!/~}s easier to sell a product than it is to sell your own services. Telling people how good you are feels immodest, even aggressive. And it~{!/~}s easy to communicate any discomfort to those you~{!/~}re trying to convince. Yet you have no choice but to learn to sell. For those who~{!/~}ve made their vows to stop being corporate courtiers and become wandering warriors of capitalism, selling should be a reflex.
In the beginning, we might sell just a little too aggressively. Our eyes are open a bit too wide, our voices are strident, our faces stiff. We are too self-conscious about selling ourselves.
It~{!/~}s important to remember that you~{!/~}re not truly selling yourself, but rather the help you can offer, the solutions you can provide. In a way, it~{!/~}s just as if you~{!/~}re selling face creams or mousetraps. What you have to offer is something you know will do the job. The product you~{!/~}re selling is not who you truly are, but rather the job you can do. Separating yourself from the service or product you offer makes it easier to accept rejection. If people don~{!/~}t buy, it~{!/~}s not because you~{!/~}re a bad person. Rather, it~{!/~}s because they don~{!/~}t think they need what you are offering. If you were a better salesperson, you might have convinced them otherwise. But just because you didn~{!/~}t doesn~{!/~}t mean you~{!/~}re a less worthy person. Once you understand that, you can relax while you~{!/~}re selling, which will probably make you more effective.
This is easy to say, difficult to achieve. Don~{!/~}t lose heart. It all comes with practice. I now know that when I began, people probably thought I was a nuisance and a charlatan. But I have had the opportunity over the years to prove to many clients~{!*~}and to myself~{!*~}that I can accomplish what I promise. My mere survival has prompted people to look at me differently. People who once showed disdain toward me began to show respect. They even started to like me. To my great surprise, they have come to consider me a guru.
In essence, if you fight a hundred battles, you may not be the boldest or bravest warrior; but at least you have shown that you are skilled enough to survive. And if you endure over time, and maintain your self-respect, you will win the respect of others. You will prevail.
Selling Should Be Like Breathing - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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James Chan Video - James Chan, Ph.D., created the phrase "The China Formula" to help Americans understand China in one word.
Dr. Chan is President of the Philadelphia-based, independent consultancy, Asia Marketing and Management (AMM). AMM specializes in advising U.S. manufacturers, trade associations, and information companies in building business relationships in China and in exporting American-made products and services in China and Asia. To view AMM's detailed profile online, go to: www.AsiaMarketingManagement.com.
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