“Selling is the art of transferring emotions” – Unknown
In selling a product or a service, the entire process involves getting the buyer to feel the way you do about your product. This invariably means that if you don’t like your product you are not likely to get good results selling it. The first thing that gets impressed on your buyer is your perception of your product.
If you have ever tried selling anything, you’ll have discovered that it’s extremely difficult to sell a product you don’t like. You’ll find it extremely easy however, to sell something you are really passionate about.
The first thing you want to do about any product you have to sell then, is to know enough about it, to be able to passionately sell it. Remember selling is a transfer of emotions. I want you to feel the way I feel about the product, and there is nothing easier to transfer than emotions. Remember how easy it is to rejoice with people that are rejoicing and how easily you’ll start mourning if a second after you meet a friend that is bereaved. When you sell the first thing you transfer is not the benefits, it’s your enthusiasm.
Let me use an example of a product we all sell – Ourselves! Every job interview is a sales opportunity, every business meeting and every networking opportunity, everyday and everywhere we sell ourselves. Whatever your profession, if you don’t know how to sell then you won’t get bought or you’ll be bought for less than you are worth. Selling is the art of convincing the willing to buy.
In an interview, the first opportunity you are likely to get, is a request for you to introduce yourself. If you think the interviewer is interested in getting to know your family tree, you kid yourself. In asking you to introduce yourself, the interviewer is giving you a fantastic opportunity to sell yourself. While there are ways to do this effectively without blowing your own horn, this is where it shows if even you are passionate enough with the product called you, to sell it.
It is perverted for a human being to pursue pain. In the same vein, nobody will be willing to engage the services of someone who is not happy or excited about himself/herself. Let’s take an extreme position, imagine you are an interviewer and a candidate is asked to introduce himself/herself and he immediately frowns, looks to the side, and says great things about his or her achievements like someone far away. The product he is selling is probably good, but the first thing you are likely to share is his feeling about him/herself.
Selling involves knowing and liking your product. If technical knowledge gives you a bonus, passion for the product should score you two more. Selling with passion is not selling, it’s genuinely caring about your customer and providing a product or service that can help. People will get weary of you if they think you are trying to sell them something, but they will love you if your passion makes it clear you are trying to help. Remember, the golden rule in selling is that people will do business with people they know, like or trust. Get passionate.
“Stop selling, start helping” – Zig Ziglar
“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”- Carl W. Buechner
“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.” – Unknown
