Inspired by Jeff Hadden’s “Why Everyone Should Workin Sales – at Least for a While”, with the contribution of Olga Nedyalkova on LinkedIn (therefore in English)
I have been preaching the idea of "why everyone should work in sales at least for a while" for many years now – giving it as advice to my friends and fellow-colleagues. Why? Because it helps. And it helps a lot to people to become better people. How? Well, here are my 6 reasons why and my 6 rules how...
1. One learns to ask the right questions.
There is a saying, which I truly follow: "say what you think and think what you say" (thus, beyond all, you might (probably) not get lost). Applied to the process of "asking questions", this could mean that we have to be careful of what questions we ask and how we ask them. Here is another one to support the above: you would always get the wrong answer if you ask the "wrong" question – and thus indeed, you reap what you sow... Cause & Effect... What goes around comes around... Cause & Effect... Simple!
By asking the right questions, we save a lot of time for wandering and ponedring, and avoid situations of potential confusions and misunderstandings with the others. Yet, asking the right question is not an easy task itself. Because... One has to think before they ask their question! And believe me, not many people are willing to think before they open up to speak, especially those who tend to undermine the importance of details.
2. One learns to be an "active listener".
Asking the right questions can easily be achieved if one is an active listener. There are GBs of information, definitions, discussions on this topic, so I’m sure everyone has their own say on it.
Here is however my definition of "an active listener" – someone, who is in the "here-and-now", bearing an open mind and an open heart, while taking a true and active interest in what the other is saying.
3. One learns to be truly open-minded and open-hearted
No prejudice, no judgement, no qualifications!
We, people, tend to qualify everything and to put it into small boxes, labeled for a more digestable use and for future reference. Yet we are a universe of our own, which cannot be easily understood, unless grasped in its whole unity or looked upon from a different, more objective, perspective.
The open mind and the open heart give a whole different perspective – one where there is more, and actually, unlimited space and air for the different and the diversity.
4. One learns how to be in the "here-and-now"
That’s probably the hardest part. But it’s a function of all of the above and if one follows them, being in the "here-and-now" just happens.
5. One learns that Life is the Path, rather than the goal or the destination!
If one has followed all of the above (1 through 4), they eventually come to understand that indeed Life is the Path, rather than the goal or the destination. What I learnt from Sales was that if I focus on the goal (get a contract signed), I lose it all. But instead, if I’m only in the here-and-now, being an active listener, I get it all. With or without a contract signed, I am able to take the best of the experience, make the best use of my precious time and learn about the other... and then to know.
6. Ultimately, Sales does help you to learn a great deal about your inner self.
And you do become a better person, where this change is conscious. Because how, if not through the others’ mirror, can we look at ourselves better? And becuase walking the Path goes along with all the scenery surrounding it – that scenery, which we are projecting while acknowledging and appreciating the other’s projection of the same.
In the end of the day, Sales (and business for that matter) is, as I say, nothing but human relations, where sales could be the instrument to go deeper in these relations.
Yours,
Señora GroupiDonna
P.S. I’ve known the state and the results of practicing all of the above, and I’ve witnessed the change happening to me... and inside me. I know that I have been in this state for a good deal of time, while doing Sales, and this is why I believe that the sales experience is a valuable experience – for life in general. And I know that once you have touched this sacred ground, it always stays within you. But in order to keep it up, it requires a lot of self-discipline and constant practice. Discipline – to follow the rules and pratice – to make it perfect. I haven’t done quite much of the latter, but now, while I’m writing this, I know I will. Thanks for following :-)
