Non-Sales Selling and Careers

Initial Thoughts

Going into this class I didn’t really know what to expect. My Dad has been in sales for a long time and I have heard countless stories of how he interacts with potential customers and established customers. Truthfully, I do not like sales much at all. I hate cold calling and I have always felt uncomfortable when trying to sell something to someone. The first two weeks of this class really surpassed my expectations for studying and understanding the art of selling. Selling is a big part of our lives, whether we know it or not, and better understanding the art of selling and communication is vital to all of us, not just the person in a sales career.

Always Selling

In class we talked about how 1 in 9 people are in a sales type of role, however, the other 8 of us are engaged in what’s called “non-sales selling”. Non-sales selling is defined as persuading, convincing and influencing others to give up something they’ve got in exchange for what we’ve got. This definition is really broad but it makes sense. Throughout our lives, we all have times where we need to convince, persuade or impress people to get or achieve something that we want or need. Whether that be getting into the school we want, being accepted for a certain job position, or even going out on a date with someone. These are examples of selling yourself, skills and traits, but they are all examples of non-sales selling.

Applications 

Understanding non-sales selling is a major advantage to have throughout life. Understanding critical sales concepts like trust, relationships, and listening all apply to the times we will be non-sales selling. I’m super excited to learn more about effective selling tactics as I know it will benefit me in my future careers, whether I’m working in a sales position or not.