We are all sales people. Regardless of the profession we’re in, if we want to influence any outcome, business or personal, we are in the selling business.
I am in Bali for Spring Break holidays with my daughter and family friends. Yesterday while we were walking the narrow streets of Seminyak, a nice in-town part of the island, I sat down to rest from the 90 degree heat and humidity. A little girl came to sit next to me. Her name is Krishna and she is 10 years old. She was with two other girls about the same age but they kept their distance. She asked me whether I would like to buy the little leather bracelets she was selling. Here’s what I learned from her about being a great salesperson.
Five Tips to Sell Well
1) Assume Friendship – Selling doesn’t happen without rapport. Krishna came and sat next to me while the other two girls maintained their distance. She was friendly. She smiled and assumed I was her friend. She didn’t want to become my friend. She just assumed we were friends. As “common sense” as this sounds just assuming someone is your friend and will be friendly with you is the first step to selling.
2) Share your story – Her English was quite broken but that didn’t prevent her from communicating with me. Her friendly demeanor and smiling face piqued my curiosity so I asked her about her family. She shared she was one of four children in her family. She volunteered in a matter-of-fact manner that the first one “die” – she rolled her eyes half-closed toward the back of her head, tilted her head to one side, stuck her tongue out to the side – what one would imagine a dead animal would look like. She told me her parents work down the street.
3) Ask good questions – In her broken English and with hand gestures she asked me about my family. How many people? I could see that in the back of her head she was calculating the potential sales opportunity. Very smart young girl!
4) Ask for the sale and make it easy – She asked me to buy a bracelet for each person in the family. I had no prior plans for buying bracelets but I really wanted to help this young girl I had connected with. So I decided to buy 3 – one for each of the girls in our family. When I realized that I didn’t have change in the local “rupiah” currency (it’s about 10,000 rupiahs to the dollar), she offered to take my dollars. Now that’s what I call being an entrepreneur – removing all barriers to the sale!
5) Help them feel good after the sale – Krishna happily put the bracelets on each of the girls giving them each a big smile. There are many reasons people buy or don’t buy – and it’s not always about the product. The other girls had exactly the same bracelets. Bracelets weren’t on the top of my list of things to buy in Bali. As I stepped back to reflect about why I bought these from her, I realized some of it was that I wanted to find a way to help my new friend. Most of it was that helping her made me feel good about myself. It aligned to my own identity of “being helpful”. Do you know what are all the reasons why someone would want to buy from you? Sometimes the reasons are not so obvious.
Travel is such a great way to connect with our common humanity. So is just being fully present to any lessons we can learn from the person who we are in the presence of. I always find it a joyous process when I can get there!
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