Why we must all be salespeople
In 2012, shortly after my university education, my mom had just opened a small bakery in the house. The bakery was our kitchen, and from it, my mom baked 200 loaves of bread daily.
She had two sales girl who helped her to sell the loaves of bread in the neighborhood in Lagos. My mom had always loved baking but never really done it commercially, so when things became difficult, she turned over to her much-loved hobby. Every day, the two sales girls brought in about N15,000 each. Not a bad sum for a petty business. Some days they missed their sales target and my mom would scream at them.
One fateful day, they failed to show up. My mom went ballistic, their phone numbers were switched off, and when they finally picked the call, they said they weren't working again. Just like that! My mom became frustrated, then she looked at me and my brother and said, ''there is no way I am going to let the whole bread waste''. She told myself and my brother to put the breads in the cartons and go and sell everything.
My spirit was down; I had never sold anything let alone sell bread. But I summoned the courage because I knew I was doing it for the family. So up I went, from house to house, shops to shops, I sold the pieces of bread gradually. At the end of the day, I was only able to sell bread worth N3000, a far cry from what the sales girls used to sell daily. But that day I learned a valuable lesson in business. No business can survive without good salespersons, and from them holds the key to the company’s future.
Many people have come to see entrepreneurs like Larry Ellison, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as computer whiz kids who invented great products like Ipod, Iphone, windows, office, explorer, Adobe. But in all honesty, these men were exceptional salesmen, even if they never sold products door to door. Without their salesmanship, Microsoft, Oracle, and Apple would never have found their foot.
Joe Girard was greatest car salesman of the postwar era
But what do you do when you are not good at sales? you hired the best. Whether you like it or not your sales team will determine the fate of your business. For Chevrolet, Joe Girard would determine its fate. Joe Girard could be regarded as the greatest salesman ever. He sold 13,001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership between 1963 and 1978 and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the seller of the most cars in a year.
At the age of 35, Joe Girard walked into a Detroit car dealership and begged a skeptical manager for a job as a salesman. He sold a car on his first day of work and, by the second month, he became so good some of his employees got him sacked. His next job was at Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe, Michigan. There, he set consecutive sales records 15-year period.
Employees of all companies must understand the sales system and how it works. If every employee understands the efforts it takes to convert a value to a $1, then they will take their job seriously. If every employee understands that not every sale is guaranteed, then they will work towards ensuring improved sales by improving their performance.
**About the author**
Seyi King is the founder of Onemediafarm; a strategic content marketing agency for B2B/B2C Companies. He helps drive awareness and conversions for brands.