What do these things have in common?
– Asking that special someone for a first date
– Inviting a friend to join you on that dream, cross country bicycle ride
– Getting investors to take interest in your new venture
– Helping a student buy the right PC for college
– Making a CEO interested in learning more about your product
In all cases, we are convincing another human being to do something they might not otherwise do. As Daniel Pink says in his bestselling book “To Sell Is Human”, we are constantly trying to, “…coax others to part with resources.” We are asking people to spend time, effort or money that they might not have otherwise spent. People sell every day.
Learning brings earning
We are approaching people to learn what would entice them to do what we are asking of them. In the process we are making it clear what we want (VISABILITY), we are earning their trust (CREDABILITY), we are helping them see how good something could be for them (VIABILITY) and we are giving them confidence that all of their expectations will be realized (CAPABILITY and RELIABILITY). We are selling and no matter what we call it, we do it every day of our lives.
In the B2B and B2C worlds, I define selling as the act of helping people to buy something that benefits them and/or their businesses, within the bounds of what the seller can successfully deliver.
In our day-to-day personal lives, I define selling as the act of helping people to do something that benefits them, within the bounds of what we can make happen.
The Ultimate Sale
To pay for college I played in bands and worked in the student cafeteria. I had just transferred back to Oregon State University after a brief stint at UCLA. It was the first day of winter term and the cafeteria manager was holding her obligatory all-hands meeting to welcome the student employees. She also introduced her new assistant manager who was responsible for managing the student workers.
The assistant manager was pretty, bubbly and had an infectious laugh. I knew instantly that I needed to convince her to go out with me however, there were many challenges ahead. She was my manager’s manager and I was just one of the 100+ students who worked in that cafeteria. At the time, she had other men chasing her including an executive at the university who could afford much fancier dates than a poor, guitar toting, college student who dreamed of being a recording artist. When the assistant manager finished her introduction, she ended by saying, “Let me know if you have any questions.” I took her up on that.
I knew she liked to laugh so I would point out funny things happening in the cafeteria and around campus. I also was naturally a hard worker and that left her with a good impression. I was slowly becoming visible and credible to her while at the same time showing her that I was a capable and reliable worker. My remaining challenge was to create viable reasons as to why she would want to date this younger student rather than that university executive.
As she came to know me better, she told me about how her dates would go with the other men. They would do the traditional dinners and movies, which she liked, but she was also into music and sports, which the other men were lacking. How convenient since I was big into sports and music so our conversations began to turn to those topics.
After two months of becoming more visible and proving my credibility, viability, capability and reliability, I just asked, “So when do I get to see you outside of this cafeteria?”
What was the result? I have been married to that pretty, bubbly person, with the infectious laugh, for almost 33 years.
The best sale I ever made.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
