The world's second oldest profession

Dear Readers

How many of you are in sales?

A year ago I would have stood up and said proudly I am not in sales, I am not in sales.

For years I worked a lonely life. I was buried in my work away in a solitary cube. I worked hard and long. I put my customers on a pedestal and treated them like gods. When I was given more work than I could accomplish by the deadline I worked late into the weeknights and happily on the weekends. When I faced a problem I resolved it by research or by asking more experienced people.

I never fussed and never brought my troubles to my boss.

I expected the all knowing, all loving, benevolent one, I am not talking about god but my boss, to one day come to my cube, and have this conversation " Naveen, you work hard and accomplish many things that I have no clue about so I am happy to give you the promotion that you believe you deserve but never ever even hinted at that to me."

Unfortunately that never happened.

If you think your work will speak for yourself then I can guess who your best friends are "Dorothy,Toto, the wicked witch and other such characters". You are living in fantasy.

We are all in sales.

Being a Toastmaster I am familiar with Ed Tate the 2000 TM world champion of public speaking. Here is the advice he gave to prospective professional speakers. Did he ask them to practice more, or get more coaching. These are all important but that is not what he said. His exact words

"Take a sales class. This is a business first and you get to speak second. If you get the order confused, you don't get to speak at all! Learn how to market and sell your value. "

Ladies and gentlemen ...we are all in sales.

I read Mahan Khalsa's Mahan Khalsa's definition of sales sometime back and was so struck by his words that I remember them months after I read it and have made it the title of my speech.


"sales is the world's second oldest profession often confused with the oldest"

It strikes at you like the pungent smell of rotten eggs. It wakes you up with a kick. He packs a lot of meaning into this. Sales as a profession existed long long before IT or even law became a profession. Yet it was never regarded very highly especially in Asian cultures where if you completed a professional education (read non sales) you were like Edmund Hillary that climbed the top of Mt. Everest..never mind if you can't even afford the clothes you are wearing.

So I hope by now I convinced you about the importance of sales.

But what is sales. This is too vast a subject to be covered in a week let alone in a few minutes. So I will leave you with a golden rule and two thoughts on this subject.

The very essence of sales, the golden rule of sales,which if you ignore you will never succeed no matter how hard you try, is this

"Nobody likes to be sold but everyone likes to buy."

Thought #1

Which one is more likely to make a sale.

a. "The best oranges anywhere."
b. "Quench your thirst right now with this organic and satisfying source of vitamin C."

Option b spells out the benefits of drinking Orange juice more clearly than option a and hence more likely to succeed in selling.

Talk in terms of the solutions and benefits your product offers.

Thought #2

Here is another important concept of selling. This time from Garl Halbert, a noted marketing expert.

Imagine that you are setting up a hot dog stand. I will give you everything that you want to get set up, the world's finest hot dogs, a great location on the beach, money to advertise, great looking models....anything you want.

But I just ask for one thing. With that one thing I will beat you hands down no matter what else you have.

Have you guessed what I am talking about...

The one thing I want is a load of starving people.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will continue to ingore you ...

Build something that people need, are hungry for, have an unmet need...

So dear readers I repeat the question I asked at the beginning of the post ..How many of you are in sales?