This week’s class session gave me a lot to reflect on. When I was in high school I worked at the local Christian bookstore. I didn’t mind my boss or my fellow employees, even liked the job most days, but I hated selling. Since ending that job, I’ve been somewhat determined to not work in sales or be too involved with sales.
Our class discussions brought these old memories back to mind, and it was interesting to hear Sweet’s ideas on sales vs how I was taught to do sales in store. I thought a little compare and contrast would be a good first blog.
- A conversation/ a process. – This concept really stood out to me as something I didn’t get to do a lot of during my time at work. Sales were very rushed, and very pressured. We were selling these expensive year long subscriptions, and not many people really wanted to buy them. There were quotas and the business was tanking, so it was lots of pressure. It really wasn’t a good set up for having a normal conversation and getting to know our customers.
- Fear – Even working at a christian bookstore, customers could be very fearful and suspicious of us salespeople. When we talked about the defensiveness of customers towards salespeople, I realized it carried over into those experiences as well. People are extra defensive of their money and resources, so if they want to buy something specific they could even get a little aggressive or emotional in finding their items.
- Sales should be everyone’s job- I liked this idea. With other jobs I’ve had, I was still selling the products just by talking with people I know about my work. Or if customers would come by, I would talk to them about the product and hear how they were enjoying it. When the job was specifically sales, it made selling forced, rigid, hard, and uncomfortable. There were ulterior motives in every conversation. But, if my job is to create or design or do accounting, I’m going to be naturally making sales in the process.
BoweryJE22