The art of selling

In the summer of 1990 I returned from a year’s backpacking to discover the UK had entered a major recession. There were very few opportunities, even for a tanned and healthy looking graduate. 

Eventually I responded to a dodgy looking job ad and landed a role outbound selling corporate hospitality at Grand Prix events. After one week’s ‘training’ I was given a large business phone book and told to start dialling. The story was that there had been a cancellation and a table had become available at a major discount if your business signed up immediately. The ‘training’ was that you had to get through the whole first paragraph before the person you’d called could speak.

It was an awful company and I left as soon as I got my first pay check and, amazingly, having made one sale. It was not a pleasant experience, but it taught me several valuable lessons which I leaned on during the rest of my career:

1)   Be politely persistent –keep in touch with your network; it’s about ensuring your skills are known to a business at the point when they need them

2)   Don’t take stuff personally – some people got very angry about being cold called just as sometimes clients or colleagues can be out of order. Mostly it’s not really aimed at you, so just shrug it off.

3)   Be authentic – sell a genuine service not a make-believe version

4)   Deal directly with decision makers – nobody can sell your service like you do so don’t rely on someone else to do it for you

5)   Enjoy yourself – whilst I was very lucky to work for 3 brilliant companies, I did experience two clients who were so unprofessional, I eventually refused to work for them. If it’s not right, make a change.

If you’re looking to grow your business in the right way and value experienced guidance, please drop me a line