Note from Phil – Bob Burg is one of the first authors who wrote in a style I could understand and enjoy. His book Winning Without Intimidation changed my life in a way I’ll be writing an article about soon. His latest book, co-authored with John David Mann, is called Go Givers Sell More. I haven’t yet finished it, but I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it with you once I do. This article is based on a lesson in the new book.
The Truth About Selling? It’s Really Giving – Guest article from Bob Burg
As I took my seat in the crowded airplane, the woman in the next seat over smiled. “Headed home?” she asked.
I nodded. “Jupiter, Florida.”
“You’re a long way from home!” she exclaimed. We were on the tarmac in Regina, Saskatchewan. “What brought you to Regina?”
I told her I had been conducting a seminar for a sales organization. She wrinkled her nose. “Oh,” she pronounced, “I could never sell.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this. In fact, most people not actually in sales seem to feel this way. I asked her, if she didn’t mind, how would she define “selling”? I was curious as to what it was she felt she could never do.
She frowned in thought. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “I guess, maybe, ‘pushing things on other people.’ ”
“Ah. Well in that case, I wouldn’t be very good at it either,” I replied. “I don’t really like it when people do that to me. Do you?”
“Not at all,” she answered promptly.
“Do you buy from those people?”
“No way!” she said.
“Me neither.” We both smiled. After a moment, I went on. “But what if,” I paused and thought for a moment, “what if we defined selling as ‘Helping someone get something they want or need?’ What if we defined it as adding value to someone’s life? Did you know that the original Old English word sellan meant to give?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t either, but I looked it up. Amazing, isn’t it?”
She nodded.
“What if we saw selling that way, as giving — as sharing the benefits of a product that we ourselves love, and helping others get those same benefits? If we saw it that way, do you think you’d feel it was something you might be able to do?”
“If I really believed in it myself?” she said. “Well . . . definitely!”
“So, maybe it isn’t that you could never sell,” I suggested, “just that you’d really need to feel you were helping someone, adding value to their life, giving value and sharing the benefits of something that you yourself truly believed in.”
“Yes” she replied excitedly. “That, I could definitely do.”
“Me too!” I replied. “I think just about everyone could. And that’s exactly what I was just teaching at the sales conference. That’s the essence of selling.”
At the end of the flight I introduced her to one of the women from the conference where I’d spoken who happened to be on the flight. As I rushed to my next gate, I left the two of them in animated conversation about the possibilities in store for this young woman in the exciting field of professional selling.
The day after arriving home, I had another exchange about selling. At a local lunch place I often frequent, I passed by Bill, an architect and genuinely nice guy whom I see there often, and with whom I typically share cordial “How are you?” type greetings. Bill commented that he hadn’t seen me for a week. “On another speaking trip?” he surmised. Yes, I told him, I had been. “You look happy — bet you sold a lot while you were gone!” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I laughed and said, “Of course, of course.” He shook his head and said benignly, “Sales . . . the necessary evil of business, right?”
I could have launched into the same sort of explanation I’d shared with the woman on the plane, but Bill and I were just passing each other in a restaurant line. It was neither the time nor place to launch into an explanation of the benevolent nobility of the selling profession. Another time . . .
Still, it’s a shame. The necessary evil of business . . . There are people who see it this way. Personally, I think of selling as the most positive aspect of business.
We all have products and services that enrich our lives, that we need, want and even love. The fact is, we love to buy and we love to own — and it often takes a sales person to educate us and help us connect our needs and desires with the benefits that those products and services provide our lives. This not only benefits us personally, it also provides the basis for a vibrant and growing free market economy.
Selling is giving— giving time, education, advice, counsel, value — and the more you give, the more you receive.
Knowing that, how could anyone not sell . . . and not be proud to do so?
Bob Burg is the coauthor (with John David Mann) of The Wall St Journal and BusinessWeek Bestseller, The Go-Giver. Their newest book, just about to be released is entitled, Go-Givers Sell More. To download Chapter One, visit www.GoGiversSellMore.com
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for sharing this Phil. Count me among those pretty quick to say I have hated selling; like the woman in this story I needed a better perspective than the pushy transactional one. I have a story in my book about how we used a mantra to help us in one workplace; we’d train our self-talk with, “We don’t sell; we help people buy” and it was a good start, but I’ve had to shift further into this giving mindset wonderfully explained here.
I do think that financial literacy factors into this too however, including knowing that wealth is a value. People who sell add money to the coffers, and they have to feel good about what those greenbacks will eventually buy, and what their efforts ultimately finance. We cannot deny the transactional part of it; we have to bring it into the equation.
Thanks for adding your voice Rosa. It’s great to hear this was useful for you.
I can’t remember where I read it, whether it was a book or a blog but my favorite talk about selling was a hardware sales pitch type thing.
Nobody coming to a hardware store wants a drillbit. What they want is a hole in the wall and the drillbit is how they’re going to get that hole in the wall. We don’t sell, as sales-people, the widgets… we sell solutions to their problems/needs/wants. Our job isn’t to foist our crap onto them, but to find what they need/want and help them with it as best we can. The best salespeople are the best listeners because they’re the most able to find out what the customer actually wants and help them.
That was a huge “A-HA!” for me. I say it a lot… nobody wants a drill, they just want holes in things lol. Then I butcher the story like I’ve done here.
I’ll add this book to my to-read list over on goodreads! Thanks for the heads up!
Great point Rich. Great salespeople = great listeners.
You may want to check out Winning Without Intimidation too. Great book.
This is a really interesting alternative perspective to sales. I think I’ll carry a copy of it around and the next time I meet one of those “pushy” sales types, I’ll offer them a deal they can’t refuse by “selling” them this lesson!
That’d be fun Mick. If you give someone a copy of this article, I’d love to see how they respond.
As long as you come from a place of “Im genuinely trying to help you” you will enjoy and do better than 99% of people in sales.
Great point Richard. If you come from that spot, you can win. So why don’t more people win? Fear? Shame? Or is it merely just shifting of an attitude?
I think we’re all still trying to balance the factory mentality with who we are in spirit. It’s hard for people to evangelize and share when it’s not core to their being. For me, certainly, it feels disingenuous when I’m not %100 passionate about the service or product.