The Importance of Rhetoric in Sales

Effectively communicating your position is important in most circumstances, and one of those is selling. Like we talked about in class, more often than not there is a disconnect between the seller and the prospect when it comes to understanding what is going to happen. Sometimes the seller says one thing, and the prospect hears another, and sometimes the prospect says one thing and the seller hears another. This disconnect between the two parties can lead to confusion and frustration, since either on is not getting something they might have expected.

Because of this potential disconnect, it is vital for sellers to communicate effectively so there is no confusion on what is going to happen. Sellers need to have a clear understanding of what their purpose is first in order to properly help the prospect with there problem. A seller’s purpose is to sell, but more importantly, it is to help the person they are selling to. One way a seller can do this is to simply practice their rhetoric, whether it may be reading complicated books, practicing how they talk, and most importantly, thinking before they decide to say something.

I remember a very specific story my father told me. He used to work in a Business to Business sales position a few years ago, selling data services and solutions to fortune 500 companies. Despite having a position as daunting as this, he was still able to succeed and do very well. However, every so often, he was able to observe other co-workers and how they chose to sell to these big companies. He told me about a very specific time when one of his co-workers decided to make all sorts of assumptions about a potential prospect. His co-worker was ultimately able to make the sale, but the story doesn’t end here.

After about a month of providing services to this company, they seemed to be unhappy with the services they were getting. They were getting access to things they didn’t need, which led to lots of time being wasted. After complaining to my father’s co-worker, they ended up discontinuing their services. What my father’s co-worker realized is that in order for the customer relationship to continue, he must first listen to the customer and figure out what they need, instead of trying to make a big sale.