{"id":13292,"date":"2026-01-26T12:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/?p=13292"},"modified":"2026-01-26T12:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:58:24","slug":"selling-by-serving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/selling-by-serving\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling By Serving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his article <em>Five Sales Lessons From a Harvard Business School Professor,<\/em> Hyken describes the emerging sales philosophy of \u201cselling with service.\u201d He argues that sales is no longer separate from customer service; rather, these traditionally separate roles are closely intertwined. Businesses are gradually finding that customer experience drives far more buying decisions than previous sale tactics. Two points from this article in particular resonated with me and have functioned as helpful guides for me as a seller.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, <strong>customers don\u2019t want to be sold \u2013 they want to buy.<\/strong> In other words, they often prefer to research the product or service independently before engaging with any sort of salesperson. This gives them the space they need to evaluate their options before being pressured into purchasing something. Because of information about products being more easily accessible through online pages, sales conversations often act as confirmation rather than persuasion. Sellers have even more reason to tone down pushiness. As a buyer, this article resonates with me because I greatly value having the time and space to consider options before being pressured into buying something. This is the reason why I sometimes prefer online shopping to in-person shopping, as it allows me to shop freely.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, it\u2019s important that <strong>buyers control the process<\/strong>. Again, buyers don\u2019t want to feel like they are being pressured into making a purchase or even taking more steps in that direction. In order to show a buyer that they are valued, sellers should allow customers to choose how, when, and if they will interact with a salesperson. Companies can be creative with this by offering self-service resources (such as videos and FAQs) and easy access to human support when desired in order to relieve the pressure from customers. The ability for a business to adapt to buyer preferences is vital for its growth and overall success.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Citation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hyken, S. (2022, October 1). <em>Selling With Service: Five Sales Lessons From a Harvard Business School Professor<\/em>. Forbes.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/shephyken\/2022\/10\/01\/selling-with-service-five-sales-lessons-from-a-harvard-business-school-professor\/\">https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/shephyken\/2022\/10\/01\/selling-with-service-five-sales-lessons-from-a-harvard-business-school-professor\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his article Five Sales Lessons From a Harvard Business School Professor, Hyken describes the emerging sales philosophy of \u201cselling with service.\u201d He argues that sales is no longer separate from customer service; rather, these traditionally separate roles are closely intertwined. Businesses are gradually finding that customer experience drives far more buying decisions than previous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13293,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13292\/revisions\/13293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}