Problem Solving is something I deal with every day as an engineer, whether it be a mathematical problem, or something going wrong with the capstone project I had for senior year. Problem solving is also a huge factor in sales, as it’s what drives us forward as salespeople when we’re selling to clients, because it’s not necessarily about selling for profit, but rather uncovering pain for the client to find a solution. I tend to look at a sale from this point of view, starting with the initial problem and it’s details, which tend to be the needs of the client. Then we formulate different solutions to attack the problem, while keeping in mind the needs of the customer, in a way that is beneficial to the client. I’ve had this happen before when I was serving as part-time I.T. support for a local business for which I knew the franchiser. The franchiser was looking to sell, and wanted to make sure the computers and all the facilities were up to date with no problems, but this conclusion was initially hard to come to as she wanted me to focus on keeping everything up to date. As I was talking to her, I’d ask specific question for what she wanted to get out of this, forming a relationship as someone she could trust. Only then did she let me in on her plan to sell, which is a mindset I can easily work from since I’ve bought and sold computers since COVID. Because I approached it from a problem solving attitude, I was able to negotiate an hourly wage for her in a way that I could make some money on the side, and to where she wasn’t running her pockets empty. This is just one example that I can apply to class.
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