Finding the Value in Sales
Sales roles often get a bad rap, but they have drastically evolved over the years – especially with rapid technological advances. The negative stereotypes of a used car salesman, door to door solicitor, or unwanted cold call are outdated concepts from a bygone era. Today, a sales role not only represents the lifeblood of a company, it focuses on finding valuable solutions to customers’ problems. It is a mutually beneficial exchange to between the seller and buyer. A great sales person is able to do three things very well: identify potential customers, find a solution to their specific problem, and communicate effectively. With these three skills and a focus on providing value to the customer, sales becomes a much more appealing and exciting role to explore. All it takes is a shift in perspective. Not only that, looking back I can find lots of sales experiences in my own life despite my previous misconceptions about the role.
Identifying the Customer
The first major challenge any sales rep faces is identifying their potential customers. Who benefits from this product or service? Does it appeal to a wide variety of people, or does it focus on a more niche group? Where and how is the best way to find a group of people who want what I am selling? These are all great starting points to a sales strategy. One potential strategy is to first promote to a smaller group who are extremely interested in a product before expanding to a wider audience.
Recently I was invited to participate in a booth at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) convention. The booth I worked at was a popular vitamin brand who wanted to promote a brand new product. My job focused on scanning attendants’ convention badges and handing out free samples of the new product. At first, I thought nothing about my role involved sales, after all I was giving out FREE samples. However, over the next few days I realized the brilliant sales strategy at play. The vitamin company first focused on getting nurses excited about their brand who would then encourage their patients to buy and use it. Perhaps the initial pool of customers was small, but the outward reach was huge. Getting nurses to try the product and love it creates strong endorsements in the future. Moreover, by scanning the badges of everyone who took a sample, I was collecting potential leads since the information included their email, location, medical specialty, etc. This way the brand could easily see the types of customers most interested in the product and could follow up with them in the future. Over the course of a three day convention, I learned more about sales then I ever had before.
Finding a Solution to a problem
Once you start thinking about sales as fixing a problem someone has or helping them find a valuable solution, you start seeing sales roles everywhere even in “unrelated” fields. From a certain perspective, my job teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is a type of sales role. While I did teach full time in a school, sometimes I offered tutoring services after hours or over weekends and school vacations. How can tutoring be equated to sales? Well, the students had a problem: they wanted to speak English better, and I offered a solution: my time and knowledge of the English language. The sales part comes in when the parents and I have to agree on the value of my service. I charged an hourly fee and their student got an hour of one on one help with their English proficiency. This exchange solved a problem and was mutually beneficial to both parties involved in the transaction.
This focus on providing value is what makes sales so wide reaching because everyone has different problems that require specialized solutions. Sometimes these are little things: a student has a problem staying awake in class, a coffee shop provides them with caffeine. Other times more complex problems require more sophisticated solutions: a growing company needs a way to communicate with their team and manage tasks, a product like Asana, Notion, or Trello can help keep everything organized and everyone on the same page. Wherever valuable solutions are found, you can bet a good sales team is directly or indirectly responsible.
Effective Communication
Once a salesperson has identified both the customer and the problem they have, the most important thing is to clearly communicate so both parties are on the same page. This might be a fabulous, put together pitch or just answering lots of questions in the simplest manner possible. Miscommunication is often a reason why sales fall through so this step is essential to get right.
While I worked at a flower shop, the florist never made a big deal about me learning the long, scientific names of the flowers because most of our clients would not know or care about the name, just how they looked and smelled. If I asked a customer what their wife’s favorite flower was, many didn’t know but they did know her favorite color so we simplified our wording and focused on sights, smells, and feelings to create flower arrangements. If a customer needed a sympathy arrangement for a funeral, instead of asking them if they want “lilies, carnations, and chrysanthemums” which sounds almost like a foreign language, we would ask if they’d like “some lovely white flowers” since white is most often associated with sympathy in the flower world. Human emotions are universal so using them to describe bouquets like “romantic”, “bright and happy”, or “thank you” are an easier way to communicate with customer. On days that weren’t super busy, a customer that walked in could even watch us make the flower arrangement in the shop and give us simultaneous feedback on what they like and don’t like allowing us to make changes as we go. This way everyone is happy with the final product.
Final Thoughts
Sales roles are much more dynamic then people give them credit for. There are constantly developing new solutions to new problems. Sales roles are people focused, for anyone who enjoys solving problems and helping others might find a job in sales fulfilling. I never saw myself as someone who enjoyed sales until I shifted my perspective and realized there are lots of aspects of sales I do like. Perhaps this can encourage others to reevaluate their preconceived notions of sales and give it a chance.
