The First Rule of Selling

The First Rule of Selling

Tron Jordheim c 2003

You Can’t Sell Anybody Anything

So that is like saying the first rule of football is …you can’t hang on to the ball; or the first rule of baseball is …you can’t score by swinging the bat. Maybe those are true, too. But I do know that you cannot sell anybody anything. You can, however, help people talk themselves into buying just about anything. Your job as a sales person is to help people talk themselves into good reasons to buy your offering. Your job as a sales manager is to help your sales people develop good qualifying questions that will help your prospects think through the purchase. Your job as the product developer is to create something people can see value in.

Then you can set about not-selling. Not-selling is a way to sell according to the first rule of selling. You do not tell people why they should buy; you ask people how they would use your offering. You don’t show people why the offering is good for them; you ask people to show you how it might be good for them. You don’t talk about the features and benefits; you ask about the benefits people find in the features. When the person has finished talking himself or herself into buying you ask for the order and finish the purchase.