What kind of salesperson are you?

Selling is a very special skill that draws quite a high income, because there are not many people who really know how to do it well. As a result companies are prepared to pay very good salaries to people that are able to carry out good sales.

Are you able to persuade somebody to buy something? For most people their first reaction will probably be,

“Well I'm not very good at it.”

Or they will say,

“I don't really know. I don't think I could survive in a sales job. I don't have the temperament for sales.”

In fact most people start making excuses when you ask them to do some selling.

Everyone Can Sell

Now I would like you to consider this. If you think that you aren't capable of selling, then you must have accomplished very little in life. You have probably seldom ever obtained the things that you desire.

In fact you are living a life that is controlled by other people. Other people are imposing their will on you, making you do what they want. You keep giving other people what they need, but you never get what you desire.

Is that true? Well I hope that this is not the kind of life you are living. You see if you are not capable of selling, then that is the kind of life you will be living.

Of course if you are in financial trouble it is amazing how you can learn to sell. You sell your car, your house, your boat or your jewelry.

You start selling all the things that you have, to try and survive. Isn't it amazing how you can really sell if you are forced to?

Selling is Influencing People

But you see selling is a lot more than simply a way of making money. Selling is a process by which we influence other people. We persuade them to go somewhere or give something that we desire.

Whenever you want something in life that involves other people, for you to obtain that thing you have to carry out a process of selling. And so every single thing you have ever received or obtained; everything that people have given you is because you have influenced someone else.

It can be as simple as persuading your husband to take you out to dinner. Or it can be as simple as getting your wife to cook you a good meal.

Whatever it is in life that you need somebody else to do, it requires some form of persuasion. That is all that selling is. Selling is simply a process by which you persuade somebody else.

Now if you have a real pressing need, it is amazing to see how you can sell. You can persuade somebody else to meet that need. And you can make a very strong case for what you want if your need or desire is great enough.

If you have children you know how they can nag you to death. And they do more than that. They come with these brilliant persuasions and wonderful arguments as to why you should give them what they want.

They are prepared to do anything to persuade you to change your mind and to give them what they desire.

You have to be persuasive to get results, and that is actually all selling really is.

What Makes You Buy

So ask yourself this question:

“What do you do when you earnestly desire something?”

Then if you want to understand what it is that makes people buy and respond to sales appeals, have a look at yourself as a sales prospect.

What makes you buy something? None of us like to admit that we were sold, but somebody sold you the last few things that you bought. You may have just bought them in a shop, but the shop used a technique to get you to buy them.

I want you to do a little project to find out how you can become a better salesperson. I want you to make a list of the last five or six things that you bought.

Think about why you bought them. Then look at each one and write down what it was that influenced you to buy those things.

If it is something that you buy over and over again, then I want you to go back and consider why you bought it the first time.

If you're a lady and there is a cosmetic or perfume that you use, what persuaded you to buy that the first time? And now you are so happy that you keep buying it over and over again.

How did somebody influence you to make that purchase? How did somebody influence you to enroll in a study course? What does it take to influence people to do things?

Human nature has not changed since the Garden of Eden. The first one who ever did a really good sales job was the serpent. He came to Eve and he had her eating out of his hand.

He sold her, he closed her, and it was signed, sealed and delivered. She bought the product.

How Jesus Sold

How did he go about it? I have a very good teaching that I am going to be making available on Jesus' sales techniques, so don't think I'm persuading you to go and find the devil's way, but it is a good start.

Go and see how the serpent persuaded Eve, and the tactics and techniques that he used to sell her right there. Then look out for Jesus' sales technique. I am going to show you how Jesus sold to the end user, and how He sold to the reseller.

It is very interesting. Jesus was the Master Salesman and He had some brilliant techniques in selling. We can learn these things.

You say, “Why should I learn this?”

Well if you are interested in going into business and you plan to be a business person, own your own business and make money, it is going to involve selling.

Don't think that you can simply hire salesmen out there who have all the skill and ability. You can't rely on other people all the time to make your business grow.

If you are not capable of selling yourself, you shouldn't own your own business.

Yes I know going out and prospecting and doing all the hard work is the kind of thing you hire other people to do. But if you are a true leader and a true entrepreneur, you should never need other people to do something that you are not capable of doing yourself.

You should be able to teach them how to do it. Then by all means send them off to go and do the work of selling. You can then concentrate on more important things, like expanding and opening new businesses and training new salespeople.

If you can't train somebody how to sell and you can't train yourself, how can you ever hope to succeed in business?

It doesn't only relate to business. It relates to all of life. It is even in ministry.

When you stand up to preach you are persuading people. When you lead somebody to Lord you are persuading them. You are selling them the gospel. I have a teaching on that as well.

All of life is selling. You cannot escape it, but there are some other important things that go with selling. I'm going to be covering another two in the next two days.

Tomorrow I'm going to cover a very important activity that you will have to carry out effectively if you want to be successful in your business.