“At least I am not in sales. I could never succeed in sales.” I heard this the other day from a friend of mine who was talking about the types of jobs that he was convinced he could never have. I told him that he was already in sales and just didn’t know it. He was confused. You see, sales isn’t just a job where you try to convince someone to buy something or sign up for a service. Sales is an attitude. It’s a personality. It’s what we all do, every day.
Every place you go, with everything you say and do, you are selling yourself. People judge who you are and they judge the company that you represent just by watching you and listening to you. What they observe tells them a tremendous amount about you and who it is that you represent. Are you honest? Are you ethical? Are you boring? Are you funny? Is that place a nice place to work? What kind of image are you portraying in your emails, your phone calls, and your handshake? Whether you want to or not, you are a walking, talking, sales personification of who you are and where you come from.
This will become most evident to you when you embark on a job search or career change. When you start looking for a new job you engage in the biggest sales job of your life… the sales pitch of yourself. People suddenly get better at sales when they have to sell themselves!
So my advice is to approach every aspect of your job and your life like you are in sales. If you want to influence others you work with, you have to learn how to ‘sell’ your ideas. If you want to convince your boss that you are indeed worth that promotion or raise, you are indeed ‘selling’ yourself and your work product. And of course, if you want to convince that cute neighbor to go out on a date with you, then you better get good at sales real fast! Everyone is in sales, so put on your best smile and get to work!
