Redefining Sales: A Skill Built on Listening and Love

A note to young leaders.

It’s remarkable how often people recoil when I suggest that they have a gift for sales.

Too many people associate sales with slick, smooth-talking manipulators who pressure us into saying “yes” to things we don’t need or want.

This cynical stereotype is wrong. Sales is among the noblest of professions.

As Steve Harrison explains in his TEDx talk – to “SELL” is to “Sincerely Encourage by Listening and Loving.”

I have recommended this TEDx talk to almost every entrepreneur I’ve mentored.

Never set out to ‘sell’ anyone.

Instead, listen carefully to a prospect’s needs; ask how you can genuinely help; walk away if your solution isn’t right; recommend alternatives if they serve the prospect better; and always aim to leave them better off for having met you.

Sales is the most highly remunerated skill in the world – for good reason. Without it, you don’t have a business.

Demonise it at your peril.