Blogging and personal growth are not often mentioned in a same breath with selling. For one thing, blogging and personal growth are noble while selling is very often given a bad rap. The three best reasons behind selling’s poor reputation are:
- People love to buy, but they don’t appreciate being sold to.
- Selling can be outright dishonest, deceiving and manipulative – often is.
- Selling is difficult. Rather than attempt and risk failure, doing nothing (while criticizing those who do) is the preferred option for many. But refusing to attempt requires reason, if only in their own mind, hence “selling is bad.”
Some go as far as to declare “honest selling” an oxymoron.
Customer meets engineer. “Hey, engineer, can I ask you a question?”
The engineer replies, “I’m not allowed to talk to customers. We believe that honesty impedes sales.”
“I think you just impeded,” the customer concludes.
For one like me, blogger and entrepreneur, selling is simply part and parcel of life. Anyone ever engaged in getting ready for an important date has sales experience.
I value honesty AND selling equally. The two complement each other just fine. When there is absence of honesty, it’s in people, not in the act of selling per se. Creating a new business – for-profit or non-profit – absolutely involves selling. To engage in the act of selling with the goal of maybe one day employing others, and most significantly, to provide a service that improves peoples’ lives, I regard as my most fitting challenge and opportunity. Building a business is my greatest growth and contribution, greater than any charity I can make.
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I laughed when I read your oxymoron statement. I started Honest Selling (my sales training company) in March of 2000. The very first time I went to a networking event representing this company … the very first person I met … meaning the very first time I shook a hand and said "Gill Wagner, with Honest Selling" … they guy replied, "Isn't that an oxymoron?"
I've actually been using it for humor ever since.
Thanks for both bolstering the profession I love so much and for advocating people take the honest path.
Gill
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