I am a salesman. There – I said it. Despite the fact that my business card says ‘Regional Manager’, we all know the unvarnished truth.
Okay, there’s a bit of (a fair bit of) support and technical advice thrown in there too. But your boss doesn’t enrol you in a course called ‘Sales Advantage’ when you’re primarily a technical adviser.
What’s comforting to know is that there are other people out there who carry a label even more despised than that of mere ‘salesperson’: try ‘used car salesman’. How does that wash with you?
Nevertheless, I take heart that we can learn even from used car salesmen / salespeople. I was reminded about this today as I was driving along Parramatta Rd. Passing by yard after yard of seasoned jalopies, I realised that to survive in this industry a person has to be among the world’s greatest optimists.
They seem to be able to find something good in every car – which then becomes the key selling point: ‘Air conditioned’, ‘One owner’, ‘Low kms’, ‘Leather seats’, ‘Just serviced’.
Sometimes it appears that the hunt for something nice to say has fallen on hard times – so the selling point becomes ‘Automatic!’ (it may just as easily say ‘Manual!’). When it gets this bad you’d probably get more interest if you signed ‘Wheels!’ or ‘Engine!’
Still, you gotta admire the tenacious spirit of those who always find something nice to say, especially when no one else is thinking nice things.
It's certainly a principle which can carry over into other areas of life: to always seek to find something in other people that you can compliment them on. But then it'd better be genuine - and backed up by something more truly meaningful than a 'five-year extended warranty' from a salesyard.
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You are sneaky! Here I was thinking that because our internet connection was down you were not able to post your blog! And you let me gloat in my error!
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