Lessons From the Umbrella Seller
Eventually, we all become salesmen. The more senior we become, the more our job means persuading and influencing people to do things. We give ourselves grand titles like Vice President, Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President or even Big Banana. But behind the grand titles lies the reality that we are all salesmen. Ask any true salesmen, and (s)he will tell you that sales is the highest calling of them all.
So how do you sell?
My first insight came from Daniel. He was selling umbrellas on a sunny day. And he was doing good business: all the beach goers wanted to buy some shade. But he did no business with me: I was going scuba diving. Selling umbrellas to scuba divers is a triumph of hope over reality.
Daniel demonstrated perfectly the power and limitations of good selling. Good selling starts by understanding and responding to someone else's need (protection from sun or rain). If you are pushing an idea which someone does not need (umbrellas for scuba diving) you will get nowhere fast. This is technically known as a BFO: a Blinding Flash of the Obvious. It is so obvious that 99% of people routinely miss it or ignore it. As George Orwell wrote: "To see what is in front of your nose requires constant struggle".
If we are keen on our idea, we sell it hard by extolling all the virtues of our brilliant plan. And then we wonder why we get push back and no one shares our enthusiasm. We have been trying to sell our umbrella to a scuba diver. Instead of talking about our idea, we need to close our mouth and open our ears.
We need to understand what the world looks like from the perspective of the person we are talking to. Once we understand their needs, priorities, hopes and fears, we can start to talk in a language which they respect. We can start to align our idea with what they need and want.
Good sales people learn to walk in other people's shoes and see the world through other people's eyes.