Why and How Non-Sales People Should Sharpen Their Selling Skills

You pitch ideas and opinions all day every day. You try to influence your friends, kids, partner, co-workers, your bosses, and yourself, in certain directions (yes, those pep talks with the mirror are pitches). Likely, you don’t realize what exactly you’re doing most of the time. Improving basic selling skills will not just speed your collaborations, decision making, meetings, but enhance your influence, effectiveness and productivity. But of course, you have to put the sweat in to win the match!

I’m standing behind you on the bench in this game, so let’s whip out the chalkboard and talk strategy!

 Even if you’re not a professional sales person, it’s obvious to see that it’s more than the gift of gab or being able to fit a whole jar of grease into your hairdo everyday!

1)    Vet an Idea before pitching it.

Different ‘pitches’ obviously vary in importance which indicates how much homework you need to do beforehand. Which restaurant to eat at Friday night with your buddies has little significance compared to being granted a raise on request or with family regarding a critical medical decision.

 Put an appropriate amount of time researching your idea based on its significance so you have a healthy understanding of its impact.

 Example:

 “So, TGIF’s for dinner tonight? Why?! One, because it’s Friday, two, they have gluten free nachos for Marco, three, game is on and, four, I already have a reservation for the corner booth!” = 5 Minutes

Vs.

 “Thanks for coming to our family meeting regarding Mom, everyone. I’m so thrilled we have a family so invested in taking the best possible care for her. As promised, I’ve researched [medical option ABC] by talking to two leading researchers, a vocal critic of this approach, and was able to get some advice from a handful of friends who are doctors with significant experience with patients like Mom. Here are my findings and I’ll conclude with my personal thoughts.” = hours and hours.

2)    Clear and Concise Communication

Yes, roll your eyes at the cliché ‘clear communication’ and then come back and give me 20. Those who are clear communicators have worked for it. They didn’t start out where they are and they don’t stop developing their skills, and MAN! Do they look and sound good!

 When you have a clear, linear explanation with evidence to back up your opinion, it’s obviously more compelling than a tongue-tied ramble with bunny trails and unclear connections to your conclusion.

 Example:

 “Therefore... oh shoot, where’s my next sheet of notes… &%*^… sorry, yes, here I am… therefore, the reason I, well, I, Steve, Martha and I think Louis agrees too, that we should consider implementing this process next week. We’d have a lot to organize before then. And DESPITE the fact that the other option is cheaper, I think this way is a much better option if we can flesh out a robust implementation strategy... probably best by Tuesday.”

 Vs.

 “I’ve consulted with several of our senior staff regarding the possible vendors and Company ABC has been identified as a far better fit based on these metrics you can see on the screen behind me which we will now look at in better detail and I’ll take questions as we go, but I promise to keep us on time.”

3)    Predicting and Preparing for Objections

Even if you just gave the greatest presentation of your life to the board of executives your mojo, and often your credibility, takes a fatal blow when you look or feel like a deer in headlights after a challenging question. The bigger the presentation the more time you need to prepare for objections and how you will answer them. Prepare how to respond to something you don’t know with a game plan to get the answer.

Have someone trusted and knowledgeable review the content with you and brainstorm the most common, likely, and challenging follow-up comments and questions. But don’t leave it there! Practice your rebuttals/answers out loud so you don’t stumble, look uncomfortable, or feel nervous.

Example:

 “Why did our team lose this [major] client this month? Well, to be honest… I think… ahh... this isn’t exactly related to my presentation… can I just take questions on the slide deck?!”

 Vs.

“I appreciate you asking about this. We discovered an error in our reporting system two weeks after the client submitted a ticket only after our rep responsible for the portfolio checked his email spam folder. By then, the client had moved quickly and started talking to our competition, his personal friend, who was able to offer a similar package to ours including the offer to buy out the rest of the client’s contract with us. We pulled out our bag of tricks but couldn’t save the portfolio. I’ll take one more minute explaining what we’ve done to guard against a repeat of the incident and Antonio said he can take any engineering questions about it.”

4)    Consider who you’re pitching to and customise it to their decision making style and personality.

Take charge of your projected image. If your family sees you as a stubborn, my-way-or-the-highway type, you’re going to have to bend over backwards to ensure your pitch shows you’ve genuinely considered the options and are just concerned with going with the best fit for the situation.

If you work for someone whose personality really grates on yours but you need their buy-in, you’re going to have to take time considering how you might communicate in a way that they absorb more naturally.

Consider how they make decisions. Does your manager typically take a few days to chew on a new idea? Build that time in and communicate your expectations. Are they known to not really care about the priorities you’re responsible for? Identify specific outcomes and learn how to draw parallels they will care about!

If you don’t have a pitch coming up imminently, then consider doing some homework NOW on how to more effectively communicate to those decision making styles and personalities of the people right around you.

 5)    Be Willing to Negotiate or Flex

 Sales pros know you can’t go into a negotiation naive that the other side will have their own idea of how things should go. You also don’t want the reputation of being a bully—at home, at work, in recreational sports leagues—anywhere. Learn to flex.

 You also don’t want to go in with what you believe is an effective plan and walk away from the conversation with three of five critical pillars being lost! Do you know what the critical elements of your pitch are? Do you know what you could compensate for? Can you identify which elements, left out, would render your plan ineffective? Go in to the conversation knowing these things are being able to communicate it clearly—analogies can be great depending on your audience.

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Even if you’re not a professional sales person, it’s obvious to see that it’s more than the gift of gab or being able to fit a whole jar of grease into your hairdo everyday!Effective selling takes research, persuasive communication, sharp listening/observation and even some understanding of psychology and anthropology!

I coach professional sales people with selltowin, and our online, on-demand sales training can help anyone understand and practice the foundational skills required in sales. Selling is absolutely a transferable skill to any job!