During a program I was doing recently, I was asked this exact question by a person who was incredibly sincere.
Sad comment is I’ve been asked this question far too many times by people who suddenly find themselves in a sales position.
My advice to the person was to first relax and get the notion out of their mind that they’re a salesperson charged with selling. What’s funny is when I said this, you would have thought the person had just won the lottery.
What’s really funny is the person is in sales and is expected to sell, but somehow they just didn’t get the memo — or maybe they got the memo and they just don’t want to believe it.
I asked the person if they like helping people and they replied, “Of course I do.”
I then asked them if they like helping people see and achieve things they didn’t think were possible. This question left them with a puzzled look on their face, but after thinking about it, they responded again with a “yes.”
Think for a moment about the second question in the previous paragraph. Helping people achieve things they didn’t think were possible is huge, but that’s exactly what we do when we’re selling.
We’re helping others achieve things they didn’t think were possible.
Regardless of what you sell, you’re providing the customer with some sort of a benefit that is going to allow them to either do something better or minimize pain.
This person I was talking to was not understanding the role they were to play with others. They viewed themselves as nothing more than a hustler looking to take money from people.
Sales is about helping others. It’s about allowing those we have the privilege to serve to see something they didn’t realize was possible.
If you’re in sales and you don’t feel you belong, ask yourself the following questions at the start of each day:
Who will I have the privilege to help today?
Am I going to have the opportunity help people avoid pain or maximize an opportunity?
Who will I be able to influence and impact today?
What can I do today that will allow my personality to come through even more?
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
