Sales Wisdom - I challenge you to guess the source (Revealed Below)

“In every sale you are dealing with people. Fundamentally, they all buy the same things, for the same reasons, and in the same way, regardless of whether they are buying automobiles, clothing, or soft-drinks. When you know the what, why, and how of buying, you will be able to help your prospects buy, which is the easy way to sell!
The four buying motives on which all buying is based are as follows:

1. Gain and protection
2. Economy
3. Comfort and convenience
4. Satisfaction of pride

While all four of the buying motives influence the sale of all products and services, all prospects do not buy for the same reason. . . . A good salesperson in my opinion has to study buymanship just as much as salesmanship. After all, a salesperson who knows what prospects buy, why they buy, and how they buy, can sell and serve them better than a salesperson who just understands their product and has a good sales talk." *

The reason most prospects object or throw up a self-defense of sales resistance is because they want more information. When they say "No," they often mean "I don't know." So tell them more.”

These quotations came from a sales manual written for salespeople in 1946, the year I was born. Of course selling has changed since then. We have the internet, global competition, many more choices, and sophisticated buyers and sellers. However, we are still selling to people.

In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, solid principles of selling and persuasion are still required. Dale Carnegie's advice, "Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view" is still ignored by the vast majority of today's product-peddling salespeople. A few, very few, highly principled and practiced salespeople connect with prospects every day and sincerely help them buy. We all feel lucky when we find such a salesperson. They are rare.

Selling skills are learned. According to Canadian Author Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of focused-practice to master a skill. Over the years I've been privileged to work with rare salespeople willing to do what it takes to genuinely help their prospects make the best buying decision.

I'm thankful for that, and continue to seek out salespeople willing to go that extra mile.

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* These quotations came from a sales manual written for salespeople in 1946.