Yes, I said it again…learn to sell!

I’ve been feeling like a broken record recently. I keep telling people, “Learn to sell!”

Example: This week I was meeting with a friend who has a daughter in college. She’s an engineer and interested in one day starting her own company. He was asking me what she should do this up coming summer between her junior and senior year. I said, “Find a summer job or internship that helps her learn how to sell, no matter what the job is. She will need to know how to sell if she wants to start a company one day.”

Example: I was meeting with another friend this week with a small business and she’s really trying to get it off the ground. She’s super talented and my main advice to her every time we meet is the same: “Get more meetings, network your brains out, sell sell sell!”

Example: I met with a young person this week who used to be an intern at Engauge (my last company), and he’s looking to break into the marketing world in Atlanta. My advice, you guessed it, “Find a job in sales or marketing at an agency, and work your way up. Everyone can use more help in sales, and whatever you do in your job going forward, you’ll be better at it by knowing how to sell.”

Growing up and helping my dad with his vending business, I saw how good he was at selling. He wasn’t great at the smile-and-dial side of selling, at least I never saw him do that, but he built close personal relationships with his customers and they trusted him. I learned about the value in relationships by watching him on a day to day basis. That’s sales just as much as cold calling (which is a great skill if you can do it, I just can’t).

So, learn to sell. And also learn to speak in public. Those two skills will help you succeed in whatever you want to do in life, work or otherwise.

1 Comment

  1. Joe Koufman on September 23, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    Amen. I highly recommend this book: https://amzn.to/1ix7urz (disclosure: affiliate link)



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