3 Ways SALES is Like Parallel Parking
Brian G. Burns
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We all remember having to learn how to parallel park to pass our drivers license test. It is almost universally considered to be the hardest part of the test. So dreaded is parallel parking that high end automakers have developed an expensive option to automatically parallel park your car for you.
So what could Sales and Parallel Parking have in common?
Here are my top 3:
- It looks a lot easier then it is: When we watch others try to parallel park we can not help but think “It is not that hard”. We watch others pull forward and then over steer and hit the curb or stick out into the street. After the third try we may even start to giggle at how frustrated the driver is becoming. But we are all humbled when it is our turn. Unless we drive and park in the city often we try to avoid having to parallel park. Sales from the outside also looks easy. From the outside how hard can it be to answer questions and talk about how great the product is, right? Well anyone who has never sold may believe that sales does look easy until they try it. We quickly discover that it is not as easy as it looks, people are less then welcoming to salespeople. We learn that people are not as enamored with our product or company as we are. We learn that there are many other uses for their money other then purchasing our product. We learn that sales is a lot harder then it appears.
- It is counterintuitive: Before we learned to parallel park we most likely tried to just drive right into the space instead of pulling up next to the car in front of the space. We quickly learn that by drive directly into the space puts the car into a weird angle that requires pulling up and backing up several times and still not getting the car close enough to the curb. So we do sometime counterintuitive and pull up next to the car in front of the space and back into the parking space and then pull forward. Sales and selling are also very counterintuitive, at least to those who understand it. At first you would think that sales is about talking but we quickly learn it is about listening. You would think that it is about our product but it is really about the outcomes that our product provides. Sales looks like it is about pushing and taking but we have learned that it is about guiding and giving. Sales is a very counterintuitive activity and few learn it.
- A very useful skill: Both parallel park and selling are very useful skills. Once you become even ok at parallel parking you will feel confident in driving in urban areas and not get stuck parking in a garage with a long walk to your location. Once you learn how to sell the world is yours. You will understand how people make decisions and never be unemployed. Both skills are very useful.
Do you know of any other things that Sales and Parallel Parking have in common?
If you listen to PodCasts, check out mine “The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling”.
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I welcome connections and thanks for reading this post,
Brian
Area Sales Manager at Bytek MPS
8 年But when you can parallel park it's like riding a bike????????
Retired
8 年Great analogy. 45 years into my career and still learning.
3X Salesforce Certified Business Analyst + Admin. + App Builder ? CSPO? ? Scrum Master Certified ? Project Management ? Talent Alliance Latin Cohort Alum?????? ? Driving lean growth through value based relationships
8 年Great piece of reading! Just a piece of constructive grammar advice here though: Virtually all words "then" you used in this article are actual "than"s , which means what they all actually mean is "than", they might sound the same but they are just not the same.
Fed up with anonymous search
8 年love these California Street , Good sales start by great support , not these "moorons" barking your sales goal is so many Hundreds of dollars per hours . Good sales happen by working with the Customer , anything else is simply used car sales practice , don't expect return not referral . Good sales come with good Customers , interested in a product , not these butterflies going from, flowers to Flowers on a spring dew .... and Certainly not these peoples walking in with the attitude "the Customer is always right" actually they are wrong , they are your business's poison , legitimate Customers feel cheated , staff frustrated you eat your losses . On another subject , parallel park is easy , bring your vehicle with steering wheel straight at the height of other vehicle , back up slowly until your rear window is 1/2 way past the vehicle , then while slowly backing up turn the steering wheel full turn , Looking at the rear with heads turn when you are the vehicle behind you is slightly 1/2 in your rear windshield turn the wheels the opposite way then straight up by moving forward . Trouble is , driving is like selling , too many rely on technology , no one bother to learn.
Channel/Partnership Sales Director
9 年Great article and comparison! So true