The Marketing Mentress: Do You Like Sales?

Tell me, do you like sales? If you do not like sales, what have you done throughout your life? Did you know that like it or not, we are all in sales from the day we are born? We sell ourselves to the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, our spouses, children, in-laws, every single person we meet every waking moment of our lives.

We learn at a very early age how to “pull the strings” of those around us. We learn how and when to smile and make certain noises. It is by those responses to our tiny being that we very quickly develop how and when to appeal for the things we need and want. These responses are built in. They are our inborn survival responses.

The thing is that as we grow older, life gives us mixed messages and it is by those outside responses to us that we begin to develop our “sales” profile. If we receive negative responses to our appeals for the things we want, we instinctively make changes in the way we make our appeal. Sometimes when we are overwhelmed with negative responses, we choose to become a “wall flower”.

Without entering into an entire psychological analogy, simply put, our individual life experiences shape us into the people we are as adults. This is established by the time we are eight years old.

Did you know that?

By extension, our entrepreneurial spirit is established by the time we are eight years old. It is not necessarily our own families that influence us. Take Robert Kiyosaki for instance. He has a rich Dad and a poor Dad. He saw what lifestyle his poor Dad had from working for wages all his life and he saw what his rich Dad had as an entrepreneur. Who do you think was the better salesman? Why do you think that is? He saw that he could have more of what he wanted and needed with the way his rich Dad worked.

Think about it. Are you a “wall flower” or a “dancer”? It is all about how you make your customers feel.

A major part of what makes people like Robert Kiyosaki wealthy is the way they sell themselves and their “stuff”. So how do you think that he makes his customers feel?

Still don’t like sales? Do you have a job? Having a job can do either of two things. 1. A job can lull us into a settled for lifestyle where the house we live in is dictated to us by our income. Or 2. A job can motivate us to get rid of that job as soon as possible so we can buy our dream home.

Here is how sales works with online marketing:

It is all about how you make your connections feel through your “why” and “who you are”. People want to do business with the people they know, like and trust. It doesn’t matter whether you begin the relationship online or not. Whatever the modus operandi, people will buy from you if they like you and trust you.

In my previous blog, “Are You A Wall Flower?” We touched on what it means to be a “Wall Flower” with social media and online marketing tools. Our success depends on how we make our connections feel.

A small child learns quickly what our “tells” are, and how to push our buttons for the responses they need and want. When one way stops working, they quickly switch to a new tact. Have you noticed?

Since we are all in sales, think about how you are using other people’s “tells” to achieve your end result. –Or are you content to be lulled into being a “wall flower”?

Watch for more of my story in “How to Sell Yourself with Social Media”.

Got a LinkedIn question? Feel free to email me and I will answer it in my next blog.

Fired at Fifty: Stop Looking For Work and Discover What You Were Meant to Do.