Megan's Great at Selling-Too Bad She Hates It!

A few years back I wrote a best-selling book: SELLING SKILLS FOR THE NON-SALESPERSON: FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE TO SELL BUT LOVE TO SUCCEED.

It is addressed to the great majority of folks that need to be persuasive, but who lack training, and of course who have titles other than “salesperson.”

That’s a lot of people.

I’ve had quite a bit of experience in training them, too.

What I’ve always found especially interesting is the fact that many non-sellers, once trained, are just as effective, if not more so that their “official” counterparts—the ones with the loftier titles and the bigger paychecks.

Still, despite outward success, non-sellers struggle.

I recall with some chagrin the waitress at “The Good Earth” restaurant I recruited to do some selling for me, part time while she kept her other job. Within a week, she was earning twice what she put together, tips included, at the other place.

I was happy.

I thought she was, too.

But shortly thereafter, with a long face, obviously one that didn’t want to break bad news to me, she announced she was quitting, because “Selling just isn’t ME!”

If you’re a salesperson through and through, you scratch your head over this, muttering to yourself the obvious: “She was making TWICE as much and she quit?”

“I’ll be darned!”

But if you’re a non-salesperson, you hear this tale and just smile, “I’m the same way!”

But let’s back up—to birth, shall we?

Do we come into this world hard-wired to sell, or is this a learned ability, an acquired taste, if you will?

In a different book, HOW TO SELL LIKE A NATURAL BORN SALESPERSON, part of my message is that there are natural salespeople, in the same sense we have natural athletes, mathematicians, and musicians. They seem to have an innate affinity for what they do, and there is a grace, an effortless ease, and a style that they bring to their vocations that others have to struggle for.

This doesn’t mean non-sellers cannot be trained, succeed and stick with it. Some can, but who are they?

I believe they are the ones that can cut through the anti-sales propaganda that permeates society. They don’t buy into the idea that selling is for people that cannot do anything else, or that selling is inherently deceptive and unethical, or that it is a lower status occupation, plainly beneath them.

Those that make the successful transition from non-selling don’t consider themselves NON-anythings. Everything is within their realm of possibilities, if they put their minds to it.

Fundamentally, they’re optimists, they feel good about themselves, and they embrace challenges. They would make peachy dental hygienists, great pro bowlers, or wonderful teachers.

They just happen to be selling, or not.

Non-salespeople, like my Megan, being pessimistic, might double their earnings in the sales game, but they tell themselves “It won’t last!”

They readily take to heart the counsel of their friends and family and even strangers who hear they’re selling, prune-up their faces, and ask, “How can you DO that?”

Maybe, selling is TOO EASY for them, so they doubt its significance as well as its permanence. Possibly, they believe earning a living should be hard, what seems to be “easy money” is inherently evil.

If so, could it be that our best sellers, our naturals at it, will probably never discover they have a gift for this trade because they just won’t give it a try?

It’s possible.

All I know, having been a sales manager, a consultant, and of course, as a business person is the fact that we always need good salespeople, and there are only so many “gifted” ones to go around.

The remainder must be MADE, and it is our job to make them.

Here’s what we can do to make this a more achieving endeavor:

(1) Lionize salespeople every chance you get. Make them heroes, especially the top producers.

(2) Develop career paths that gradually enlarge the ranks of salespeople. Take some of your most eager folks from other areas of the company and assign them the duty of assisting your best sellers. Gradually, have them take on small sales-related tasks, calling existing accounts to share information, setting appointments, and the like. Finally, give them a shot at “soloing,” with a suitable salary, at first. Then, add variable compensation, commissions and bonuses, as they become successful.

(3) Point out to all existing employees and recruits that your company is building a sales culture, which means a POSITIVE, can-do, optimistic one. “Everyone sells, all the time,” should be the message.

We need to make the climate more hospitable for those who sell, and for the great ones that could become top producers.

Then, the Megan’s of the world could feel rightfully positive about their accomplishments when they succeed at this essential business function, and look forward to even better days doing it.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is quoted in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. President of Clientrelations.com and Customersatisfaction.com, his seminars and training programs are sponsored internationally and he is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of management and consulting experience to the table, with the best academic credentials in the speaking and training industry. A Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies and successful family owned and operated firms.

He can be seen on CNBC at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=417455932# and reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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