WE ARE ALL ‘SALES PEOPLE’

 

When recalling bad experiences with a sales person, it easy to conclude that most people are not aspired to become a sales person.  In the last two decades, HR used to be much more administrative and there was a time when it was called Personnel.

But at the end of the day, we are all ‘sales people’.  We are indeed.  CEO of a company is also in a sales role where CEOs sell their ideas to the management team and the board of directors to get their buy-in.  Even the receptionist who picked up the phone is actually selling the brand and perception of the company.

 

Steps to be a good ‘sales person’:

1.         Understand the customers’ needs

·         Putting oneself in the customer’s shoe

·         Trying to understand the need from their perspective

·         Looking beyond the obvious circumstances

2.         Start with the ‘why’

·         Understanding the why will able us to make a strong persuasive arguments to our customers

·         So that a favorable outcome can be achieved

3.         Master the art of negotiation

·         ‘leave one’s ego at the door’ when negotiating

·         Do not take offence when negotiating

·         Put oneself on the other side of the negotiating table to gain different perspective

·         Take a breather before coming in back to negotiate further

·         Build the ‘golden bridge’ for the other party to walk across to you

 

Acknowledge our purpose in the organization and realize that we have all been in ‘sales’.  So let’s evaluate which part of our jobs involves sales.  It may surprise many of us that whatever maybe our job title, we are infact also a ‘sales person’.

SHARED FROM:

We are all sales people

Talking HR by Pauline Ng

StarBiz Tuesday, 19 March 2013