Jon E. Horton has worked in sales, marketing and consulting for more than four decades. Through his extensive experience in the field of telecommunications he has been able to apply his sales expertise to form strong partnerships with executives from a wide variety of industries. He has distilled his years of work in the rules and vignettes found in The 22 Unbreakable Laws of Selling.
Like many of my Facebook friends, I chuckled when the picture above was posted by numerous people. And, like all good humor, these words contain an element of truth. But, as is often the case, the truth can be tricky with basic laws of selling.
Virtually everyone would agree that we can only do our best work when we feel good about ourselves. Those good feelings produce positive energy which, in turn, generates confidence.
But, you feeling good about you doesn’t happen in a vacuum. And, it probably doesn’t happen at all if the signals you receive from those around you aren’t positive. So, when all is said and done, how we see ourselves is largely determined by how we are seen by others. For those of us who work in sales, the reflection we’ll see in the looking glass will be defined by our clients. Will they envision us as simply commodity peddlers? Or, will we be viewed as critical business partners?
Salespeople have the ability to shape the answer. But, only those sellers whose activities are totally customer-centric, who remain focused on controlling how they are perceived by others (clients), will truly be able to feel good about themselves.
For more on this topic, read The 22 Unbreakable Laws of Selling, Chapter 1 – The Law of Self (http://www.amazon.com/The-22-Unbreakable-Laws-Selling/dp/1480133825). Share your thoughts with Jon@JonEHorton.com.
