Ready, Set, Sold

"I can't sell" is a statement made by the majority of us. Fortunately, the same people have made that statement very untrue. Each of us spends most of our waking time selling. We just don't know it or see it as selling. I came to this realization many years ago. This epiphany occurred during a series of discussions with a friend and business associate, Nestor Ortiz. With many years of successful selling experience with diverse organizations from Exxon to Mahoney Staffing, Nestor explained 2 simple concepts.

1. Substitute the word "presentation" in place of the word "selling".
Are any of these selling er-uhm, I mean presentations familiar?
- Parent trying to get a child to do something
- Person asking another person to marry them
- Job interview
- Asking for a raise
- Justification for spending money on a product or service
- Initiating ideas for problem solving
- Teenager getting a parent to lend them the car
- Person explaining to a judge why they shouldn't have to pay a traffic ticket
- Informing all players in a grammatically correct email
- A smile and firm handshake upon meeting someone for the 1st time
- Convincing a sales person to throw in a few more options for free
- Filling out a college entrance application
- Parent encouraging a child in school
- A child trying to get a parent to buy them something
- Person convincing or motivating a team / family to work collaboratively

2. Selling isn't necessarily related to money being exchanged. A sale has much more to do with an exchange where 2 or more people benefit. This is also the definition of creating win-win situations. A selling exchange could be money, products, ideas, solutions, strategies, acts of kindness, small talk, a smile, cordial courtesies, mentoring, initiative, leadership, team building, professional posture and the list goes on. Any human interaction is basically a selling exchange.

Have you sold anything today?