The Selling Quote
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
–William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939)
For Salespeople
How do you know you will fail at selling? You listen to Yeats. Sales, just like education, is all about igniting passion. Think about your product or service that you sell. Do you love it? I sold industrial lubricants. I loved working on my car and was fascinated by hydraulics, gears, bearings and lubrication.
Loving your product is the first requirement to sell successfully. If you don’t like what you sell, you will find it very difficult and maybe impossible to deal with the inevitable rejection and disappointment that is a part of selling.
What do you do if you don’t like what you sell? Maybe you need to reexamine why you’re doing what you’re doing. Or, perhaps you’re not seeing all the wonderful things your products and services do for your customers. You get to take credit for those positives because you sold the products and services that produced those results.
If you can’t see the positives, you might want to think about another career. It’s tough to hear, but it’s necessary. I hope you do love your products. This should confirm you’re doing what you should be doing. That’s being a successful salesman!