Saturday, September 19, 2009

I'm Not in Sales!!!

My wife is shy. She describes herself as a recluse. She is intensely private and rarely shares personal information with casual friends, much less strangers. She has a distrust for sales people that is hard to overcome. Our church was in need of items for a silent auction and she shocked me. She went out alone one day and made over thirty cold calls on businesses in our town and the adjoining town. At the time this happened we were relatively new in the area so every person she spoke with was a stranger. Almost all of the businesses she called upon had been hit by solicitors for a wide variety of causes. She had a eighty-eight per cent success rate! She attributes this success to her straightforwardness, honesty, and sincerity. A strong belief in the cause was the basis for her motivation. [This will be the subject of the next article in this series.] Afterwards, she was surprised at herself that she had even begun this project. Could she sell refrigerators in Alaska? Can you? Are you in sales, too?

"When was the last time you told a friend about the great (or awful) food you just ate at a restaurant? Did they take your word for it and go or not go? Well then, you just SOLD them on your experience. To say we aren't all salespeople is like saying you don't breathe the same air I do. EMBRACE reality and then, GO SELL SOMETHING! You do it anyways, now you will do it intentionally and strategically...just like I tell my coaching clients about their Facebook posts. Be intentional and strategic in ALL THINGS!"
Denai Vaughn, The Networking Queen

http://TheNetworkingQueen.net

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for kicking my butt - actually very inspirational! So I start sell something; What about a Blog Gathering in Oslo, Norway next August? :-)

    RennyBA's Terella

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  2. A great post Chip!

    This should inspire more people to sell cause if they have something that they are convinced about that has the potential, why not tell people about it?

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  3. I like to tell people "If you tell me you are not a sales person, you are now selling me on the fact that you are not"

    Thanks for the reminder - too bad everyone does not get paid for their recommendations, after all...someone is benefitting.

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