What sales satisfyingly taught me

While living abroad, I started becoming obsessed with people. I know it sounds weird but let me explain myself. I realized I lacked communication skills, and I wasn't too good at interacting with people. I became familiar with emotional intelligence, psychology and other topics related. So curiosity led me to getting in sales, which I understood is the best way to learn all those, and the learnings I got from that decision are unmatched.

First, I have to say that sales is the complete opposite of what people think it is (if done correctly). We have this conception of sales being something uncomfortable, which can only be done through scamming or being pushy. Couldn't be further from the actual truth. Sales is everywhere, but people don't like to be sold, they like to buy. As I see it, sales is all about helping people solve the problem they are facing (at least in the company I work on).

With this said, let's get to it. There are so many learnings you can obtain in everyday work at sales. At the end of the day, is just having a conversation. You put your ego aside, and forget about your product or whatever you want to say. You forget about telling the potential client what they might need, you ask the right questions for the client to notice it themselves. So yes, you learn to ask questions that trigger something.

There's a point in a sales call when I see I could potentially help that person with the product I offer. That exact moment, I hold back the dopamine hit of telling "Oh, I could help you with that, let me tell you about XYZ". No, I always try to go further, and ask again to see the inherent reason of the real pain that person has.

Breaking the pattern of a normal sales call, which is "I am calling you to tell you about my product" is key. What works best is making the client be confused of why I am not actively selling, and making the person feel special and comfortable. Not every client is the same, there are exceptions to this, like always.

One of my first calls, was with this guy, really interested in the product. I asked him a few questions, but ended up giving him an endless speech, without even asking if it'd fit him. I saw the transcription and I talked 80% of the time, I did it completely the wrong way.

Something I expected of calling constantly, is obviously rejection. There's kind and rude people, like everywhere. There are conversations way easier than others. But facing rejection is key, and the more often it happens, the more you learn. Yesterday I had this call with a man who liked the product, but decided not to go forward because of the price. I've got to recognize it's difficult not to take it seriously and act rude, but it's again about making more questions to see the real reason as to why he thought it was expensive. At the end, it was a rejection, and I realized they don't come from you at all, it's more about other factors that influence the decision, which you don't know about.

I would say this period is making me realize how important is to be attentive to other's feelings. I learnt that I must ask way more questions daily, and I think this is life-changing. Now that I am conscious of this, I can recall sometimes where I didn't ask that many questions to others, in fact, I tried to talk as much as I could about me so the other person sees value in me. I know, that's horrible, but it doesn't happen anymore. In fact, you get to be much more appreciated when you show genuine curiosity about others (keep this as a secret).

As a wrap, I am realizing the power of sales applied to something as easy as being a better person. Ask more and better questions, put your ego aside, shut up, listen and be empathic.