It’s a cliched but true saying that “whatever job you’re in, you’re in sales”. In essence, sales is the art of persuading others. It’s not necessarily about persuading others to give you money, but to take a particular course of action. Even in school, convincing your teacher or lecturer to extend your deadline is a form of sales (you are “selling” the acceptance of the postponement). As such, there are some core skills for salespeople that apply in virtually any line of work; and these are definitely worth cultivating:
A famous, if tragic, example of this was the Challenger disaster in 1986: the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its launch, killing all seven crew members. The agency involved, NASA, was warned of the possible disaster beforehand. So why did it go ahead?
Amid the many factors involved was a lack of communication. The engineer who issued the warning – Allan J MacDonald – was among the best in his field. However, he was dealing with more than just other engineers: his words fell on the ears of public relations specialists, higher management eager to impress the public, and others who had no engineering background.
When they were told the O-rings on the shuttle could fail, and that there was a “safety factor of three”, many of the listeners probably didn’t understand what that meant. In their frames of reference, the main risks were lack of confidence among the public if there were delays, or even the loss of media attention.
While this doesn’t make the engineer to blame, it does illustrate an important point: it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. If you don’t understand how your listeners think, you’ll find it hard to emphasise the importance of something.
For the role of a Financial Advisor, for example, terms like inflation rate risk or tail risk hedging may be vital; but someone with a lower level of financial literacy may not sense the importance of such topics.
For this reason, salespeople need to understand more than just their products or services; they also need to understand the prospects they speak to, and how to express things with references they’ll “get”. This is a vital skill that anyone in any line of work needs to develop, as it’s the basis for clear communication.
Most of the time – say 70 to 80 per cent of the time – you already know what would stop someone from agreeing with you. Salespeople, for instance, hear the following so often that they already have an answer prepared:
● It’s too expensive
● I already have something like this
● My spouse has to be consulted first
● I’ll buy it later
● I heard something bad about it
Objection handling is the art of having a prepared response to each of these; and if you’re good at sales, even documentation and testing, to see which responses work better.
However, sales people are not the only ones who can use objection handling skills to their advantage. Knowing how to do this helps in every line of work, as well as your social life. For example, if you’re a production supervisor, you can probably guess your boss will have objections like:
● We don’t have the manpower
● It costs too much to buy the equipment
● We can’t shake up the schedule in the middle of the work year
● These instructions are from higher up
Like a salesperson, you can take time to prepare for these expected objections, rather than just “winging it”. Research possible solutions to these objections, and prepare slides, documents, and other materials to respond to them. When you can do this on the spot, it shows you’re prepared and have thought things through.
Good sales people work in establishing relationships. Sales are a byproduct of those relationships. This means looking at the broader picture: even after a sale has been done, salespeople follow up and ask if help is needed, send Christmas cards, etc.
This is a skill that’s valuable to anyone, in any profession. This means, for example, that you don’t just forget about your old supervisor / mentor when you’re transferred elsewhere; or that you don’t start erasing contacts as soon as a project is done.
You should keep in touch with past associates, be they old colleagues, bosses, or even lecturers from University. There will be times when you need to go back to these people for help: and if you haven’t spoken to them in years, it can come off as pretentious or manipulative that you’re only calling them now, when you need something.
This takes a lot of effort, and it eats into your time (e.g., having to have lunch with old associates for no reason other than catching up). As such, those in more solo professions often ignore these efforts; but the ones who don’t will find a more ready source of potential business or aid, as and when they need it.
Salespeople often need to handle their own marketing expenses. This means knowing their Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) via different channels. For example, a salesperson with a $5,000 marketing budget needs to decide if it’s better to buy a single radio advertisement, or pay for a Google ad campaign over a few months.
This information varies for each individual and product; what works well for some may be inefficient for others. As such, veteran salespeople are good at data collection and testing: they keep track of the conversion rates from each method, and note how much results improve with added spending.
This skill is almost universally useful. Professional athletes, for instance, often track when and where they perform best, right down to counting the number of times they touch a ball during a football match. Hotel cleaners take note of the methods that improve their speed in cleaning rooms, and Private Hire Vehicle drivers note the times and routes that deliver the highest earnings.
However, most newcomers to a job delay the process of acquiring such data – they may not even recognise the importance, until much later down the road. So to give yourself a head start, pay attention from day one on the job. Keep records of what pays off, and what tends to be a waste of effort.
Assertiveness is the ability to make your point and impel action, without being pushy or obnoxious. It is different from aggression.
For example, a person unhappy with their food might tell the serving staff it wasn’t as good as before, and could they do something about it? That’s assertive. On the other hand, someone who screams vulgarities or throws the plate on the ground is just aggressive.
Salespeople need to tread the line between the two. They do have to be assertive and back up their arguments; but if they fall into aggression, they lose prospective buyers right away (also, most people respond to aggression with equal or greater aggression, so you get fights instead of compliance).
This is also a key life skill that pays off in other professions. Examples are being able to negotiate a raise, hold firm to your project direction (even if bosses disagree), or get subordinates to respect your choices.
Assertiveness can’t be learned from a book, however; it has to come from constant practice. It’s best to start small – such as haggling (politely) for discounts, and negotiating for better rates and rooms in hotels while abroad.
It also means being willing to have more awkward conversations, and practicing how to stand your ground without getting angry. Certain practices, such as meditation or counseling training, can help to develop this trait.
It is, admittedly, one of the toughest skills to learn – but also one of the most valuable.
At Exodus Capital, we help everyone from fresh graduates to industry veterans in their finance careers. This means more than helping them to close sales; it also means helping them to develop a growth mindset, and focus on personal development. If you’re looking for a head start, contact us today.
