Reflection on Sales

After spending several months learning about the nature of the sales world, there are a three key things I will take with me.

First, Listening and asking good questions is key. The conversation around your prospects need should be around 70% your prospect sharing and 30% you sharing. Asking meaningful, exploratory questions to dig into their pain and listening intently to their responses is absolutely necessary to the sales process, and honestly in many other kinds of conversations as well.

Second, approaching any sales conversation as a consultant rather than a salesperson allows you to focus on your prospect and meeting their need above trying to “close the deal” and make the sale. This frees you from the pressure of trying to get a “yes” to your offering but gives you space to really identify what they need. Approaching as a consultant allows it to be about the prospect, not about you, and that is relieving.

Third, sales is service. As a salesperson, you are a servant. You are in the business of offering someone something that has the opportunity to make their life better in some way and that is a unique gift that should be stewarded well. It is about putting your prospects needs and wants before your own and serving them in whatever way possible. This is truly an exceptional position in which to be trained and to master.

As I continue to learn, these three concepts will stay with me and I will continue to practice them throughout my life. And who knows, maybe a sales job will appear in the future!