Years ago, I came across a book that talks about matching the innate strength of a person to a sales job.
I don't remember the exact title of the book, but it has "discover your strength" as its central theme.
I remember it because I have to go online to answer the quiz to discover my strength and how it matches with my pharma sales job, at that time.
Then I came across one of Rich Dad's Advisor, Blair Singer if I got that right, which spells out how particular mutt linked to specific salespeople...
...and honestly, I have a problem with that: linking dogs to men, even though some people said that dogs are man's best friend.
And the ladies already laughing, because to them, diamond is their best friend.
"See who's smarter when choosing a friend?" they said...
But that's beside the point.
In another twisted word: sales is not meant for everybody.
Some of us are cut for sales while some are better off doing desk jobs.
And for the selected some who make sales, not everyone is cut to be the superb salesperson. Only a few can surpass the crowd and sit at the totem pole.
Many factors influence the success of salespeople. There are real factors like market, offer, and sales tools, that help with their progress.
And there are intangible factors: factors that not readily visible to the naked eyes, like motivation, passion, and innate strengths.
The last factor is what I'd like to touch on here...
Learning about our innate strengths don't come naturally. In fact, it was not even taught in school...
...and school, in turn, can be the very place where our strengths got buried and not to be found.
How many of us have experienced, later in life, that we were "gifted" in individual competencies?
I had a niece who is pretty shy in nature. In primary school, her academic achievement was just satisfactory.
But no one expects her to excel in one particular talent - debate...
...she was representing her school as the foremost debater, and to top that up: the English debate team!
Mind you: she's from a fishing village, the same place where I'm from, and English is not our mother tongue.
But who can foretell that she can go that far, as an English debater...
And the sun does not always shine in this part of the town.
Some kids did display talent in sports, for example, but was discouraged from pursuing it, for an apparent financial reason...
"What are you going to be when you finish school? What kind of job you can do if you keep playing at school?"
That's just a sample of questions these kids need to put up with...
And how would that impact their esteem, desire, and ambition?
Were they being nurtured or tortured?
During my working stint with a diagnostic company, more often than not, sales were made by the service engineers.
What interesting is, service engineer only does maintenance and troubleshooting for machines or analyzers...
...they're not the frontliners for sales!
But customers trust them.
And if we look closely at these service engineers, they're not the kind of people who would spend time explaining product features and benefits to customers over coffee, over lunch, or dinner...
...they just service the machines.
They were more of the hands-on, action-oriented folks. They often use common words and prefer to talk less and work with machines more.
They are talented folks.
I compare that to a typical salesperson, and I see stark differences.
Salespersons talk more. They often make promises that they can't deliver, but they just make them anyway to sweeten the deals...
...closing deals and raking in commission are more vital to them.
I remember at one time, one of our company's big analyzers was decommissioned due to poor service from the sales rep.
The customers just had it with the rep promises to take care of the calibration and false reading problems.
So, what's the point I'm making here?
Am I saying that service engineers make better sales than salespersons?
NOPE...
....my point is: people can utilize different strengths to fit into the different sales process.
But the stipulation is, they need to know what their strengths are.
A few years back, I was involved in a sales strategy that utilizes different social styles.
Briefly, here are the common styles: Director, Thinker, Amiable, Socializer.
These could be traced back to a book I read later: Selling With The Platinum Rule...
The point is: salespeople need to identify their own styles and adapt them to those of the customers.
Not that simple. I can tell you that...
The best that you can do with this selling strategy is "guess" after you gather all the clues. It's totally a guessing game. Very much like the weather forecast.
You might get it right, once or twice, and after that, you feel like dropping everything and move on to something more predictable.
With NLP, it's easy to pinpoint your preferred modalities, and use strategies like pacing and leading to get the desired results.
Yes, you can slice your strengths (read: preferred mode) into very minute details. For example, if you prefer visual modality, you can differentiate between outside stimuli (external) or inside stimuli (internal).
Once you have a string of these modalities, you can develop a "strategy," which then can be transferred or tune-up...
...it can represent "predictability" or close to it.
And of course, what makes this work ideally is a skill: having the right knowledge and enough practice.
Not everyone is ready for such a commitment. And once again, they might miss the opportunity to discover their innate strengths.
I mean, buying a book on NLP is not that expensive, and that's enough to give an overview of what it's all about...
...but to really understand and utilize NLP: people need more than books. They need classes and trainers.
So, what happened to those who can't afford it? Does this mean they miss the chance to develop their strengths?
A young boy was walking in a town with his mother. He saw a gentleman coming out from a carriage, and was welcomed glamorously the minute his feet touched the ground.
"Whose that man coming down from the carriage mother?" asked the boy enthusiastically.
And the mother went on to tell the boy who the man was...
"If that's who he is, I want to be like him when I grow up!" claimed the boy, with utter conviction.
And the boy becomes a congressman, later on...
His mother, upon looking into her son's drawer one day, found a note scribbled on a piece of paper, with the words: I want to grow up to be a congressman.
There was no NLP back then, for the boy to create a compelling dream...
...he was never trained in social styles strategy...
...and he could never have met Blair Singer and his mutt...
But that boy has real strengths.
And this strength can be developed by anyone willing to adopt such a simple strategy.
Can you give me a person who doesn't have even an ounce of courage, determination, and desire, who walk the earth?
Hardly, right?
All they need is, a way to channel the energy, that comes from their innate strengths.
Just like the boy who became a congressman...
Now you know how to match God-given strengths to sales, or others, as you wish. Put it to the test and see for yourself.
Sell Well:-)!
...and honestly, I have a problem with that: linking dogs to men, even though some people said that dogs are man's best friend.
And the ladies already laughing, because to them, diamond is their best friend.
"See who's smarter when choosing a friend?" they said...
But that's beside the point.
I personally believe that only a selected few can make sales.
In another twisted word: sales is not meant for everybody.
Some of us are cut for sales while some are better off doing desk jobs.
And for the selected some who make sales, not everyone is cut to be the superb salesperson. Only a few can surpass the crowd and sit at the totem pole.
Many factors influence the success of salespeople. There are real factors like market, offer, and sales tools, that help with their progress.
And there are intangible factors: factors that not readily visible to the naked eyes, like motivation, passion, and innate strengths.
The last factor is what I'd like to touch on here...
Learning about our innate strengths don't come naturally. In fact, it was not even taught in school...
...and school, in turn, can be the very place where our strengths got buried and not to be found.
How many of us have experienced, later in life, that we were "gifted" in individual competencies?
I had a niece who is pretty shy in nature. In primary school, her academic achievement was just satisfactory.
But no one expects her to excel in one particular talent - debate...
...she was representing her school as the foremost debater, and to top that up: the English debate team!
Mind you: she's from a fishing village, the same place where I'm from, and English is not our mother tongue.
But who can foretell that she can go that far, as an English debater...
And the sun does not always shine in this part of the town.
Some kids did display talent in sports, for example, but was discouraged from pursuing it, for an apparent financial reason...
"What are you going to be when you finish school? What kind of job you can do if you keep playing at school?"
That's just a sample of questions these kids need to put up with...
And how would that impact their esteem, desire, and ambition?
Were they being nurtured or tortured?
And let's get back to sales.
During my working stint with a diagnostic company, more often than not, sales were made by the service engineers.
What interesting is, service engineer only does maintenance and troubleshooting for machines or analyzers...
...they're not the frontliners for sales!
But customers trust them.
And if we look closely at these service engineers, they're not the kind of people who would spend time explaining product features and benefits to customers over coffee, over lunch, or dinner...
...they just service the machines.
They were more of the hands-on, action-oriented folks. They often use common words and prefer to talk less and work with machines more.
They are talented folks.
I compare that to a typical salesperson, and I see stark differences.
Salespersons talk more. They often make promises that they can't deliver, but they just make them anyway to sweeten the deals...
...closing deals and raking in commission are more vital to them.
I remember at one time, one of our company's big analyzers was decommissioned due to poor service from the sales rep.
The customers just had it with the rep promises to take care of the calibration and false reading problems.
So, what's the point I'm making here?
Am I saying that service engineers make better sales than salespersons?
NOPE...
....my point is: people can utilize different strengths to fit into the different sales process.
In other words: people can sell with the strengths they already possess.
But the stipulation is, they need to know what their strengths are.
A few years back, I was involved in a sales strategy that utilizes different social styles.
Briefly, here are the common styles: Director, Thinker, Amiable, Socializer.
These could be traced back to a book I read later: Selling With The Platinum Rule...
The point is: salespeople need to identify their own styles and adapt them to those of the customers.
Not that simple. I can tell you that...
The best that you can do with this selling strategy is "guess" after you gather all the clues. It's totally a guessing game. Very much like the weather forecast.
You might get it right, once or twice, and after that, you feel like dropping everything and move on to something more predictable.
Perhaps, one of the predictable strategies in NLP: Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
With NLP, it's easy to pinpoint your preferred modalities, and use strategies like pacing and leading to get the desired results.
Yes, you can slice your strengths (read: preferred mode) into very minute details. For example, if you prefer visual modality, you can differentiate between outside stimuli (external) or inside stimuli (internal).
Once you have a string of these modalities, you can develop a "strategy," which then can be transferred or tune-up...
...it can represent "predictability" or close to it.
And of course, what makes this work ideally is a skill: having the right knowledge and enough practice.
Not everyone is ready for such a commitment. And once again, they might miss the opportunity to discover their innate strengths.
I mean, buying a book on NLP is not that expensive, and that's enough to give an overview of what it's all about...
...but to really understand and utilize NLP: people need more than books. They need classes and trainers.
So, what happened to those who can't afford it? Does this mean they miss the chance to develop their strengths?
This is found in A Touch Of Greatness by Frank Tibolt.
A young boy was walking in a town with his mother. He saw a gentleman coming out from a carriage, and was welcomed glamorously the minute his feet touched the ground.
"Whose that man coming down from the carriage mother?" asked the boy enthusiastically.
And the mother went on to tell the boy who the man was...
"If that's who he is, I want to be like him when I grow up!" claimed the boy, with utter conviction.
And the boy becomes a congressman, later on...
His mother, upon looking into her son's drawer one day, found a note scribbled on a piece of paper, with the words: I want to grow up to be a congressman.
There was no NLP back then, for the boy to create a compelling dream...
...he was never trained in social styles strategy...
...and he could never have met Blair Singer and his mutt...
But that boy has real strengths.
And this strength can be developed by anyone willing to adopt such a simple strategy.
Can that relate to sales?
Can you give me a person who doesn't have even an ounce of courage, determination, and desire, who walk the earth?
Hardly, right?
All they need is, a way to channel the energy, that comes from their innate strengths.
Just like the boy who became a congressman...
Now you know how to match God-given strengths to sales, or others, as you wish. Put it to the test and see for yourself.
Sell Well:-)!
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