The Entrepreneur: Black Box Thinking
Chapter 11: IV. Sales; Persistence and the understanding of human desires and fears.
From every continent North, South, East and West alongside the great adventurer and explorer is the master of people and persuasion the great travelling salesperson. One of the greatest art forms is the beguiling art and gift of selling whether the Romany gypsy foretelling your fortune to the merchant with his spices and silks. The wheels of enterprise will keep moving as long as you share the simple understanding of people and their motivations of desire or fear.
Mastering sales comes from a genuine interest in people and developing a repertoire of communication skills to mix among all class or group of individuals. It is an art of both listening and speaking mixed with a pleasing and amiable personality. It is often fused with an instant image and presence of enthusiasm and stature exhibited in ones body language, grooming and attire. It requires a resilient personality uninfluenced by rejection or temporary defeat and deep understanding of human desires and fears.
Desires
Man and woman’s deepest desires keep the wheels of industry moving. With progress or innovation comes social change and new personal aspirations. The invention of the sewing machine and industrialisation of the cotton mills brought cheap cloth and clothing to the masses and the introduction of the insatiable desire for ‘fashion’ and a social revolution. The steel industry brought us ships, trains and railway links that expanded the potential to trade over frontiers and continents and the desire for cheaper and more ready available foods, minerals and materials i.e. Tea, coffee, sugar cane to cotton. Every great sales person understands that being on the crest of the wave of the latest new desire of the masses gives them greatest advantage to sell their wears.
Man and woman’s need to socially conform and acquire the same material trappings as their peers or social group is instinctive. The gift of a great sales person is their people and communication skills that adapts to every new customer intuitively pin pointing ones tendency towards desire or motivation away from fear. The analytical sales person will perfect their trade to mirror the behaviour of their customer and naturally align their thinking to identify your fundamental motivations and desires to package and deliver a product or service that meets your needs. They will stack up benefits and values like a wish list of promising rewards.
Fears
Fear is an equally powerful driving force as desire. Some of us are motivated by the attainment of our desires and the rest of us by the avoidance of that which we fear most; the loss of finances, material objects, pride or love. The institutions that promote security, safety and protection survive and prosper on humanities simplest fears, loss of home, health, material possessions and life and promise of the afterlife. The perceived moral and righteous establishments govern as moral authorities protecting your interests and well being from bankers, lawyers, insurers and governments to religious leaders.
Humans need to be accepted, belong and conform is one of the most motivating forces of enterprise. The fear of exclusion is a powerful motivation in our behaviours to buy and collect material possessions of various forms.
From our perceived class, working role or profession to how this is demonstrated to the world by where we live and the objects we outwardly own and exhibit. The beguiling art and gift of selling will provide answers to solving or quashing your fears with the latest product or service that meets your need.
Art of persuasion
The great sales person cannot motivate by ‘desire & fear’ alone. As mentioned previously enterprises built on lies and ‘illusion’ will only sustain a short shelf life through their complacency and lack of progress. Enterprises meet the test of time with an offering of substance, quality and innovation. The most persuasive sales person will find selling much simpler with a product or service they deem ‘genuine’ that resonates with their values.
Beyond this you can sell sand to the Arabs if you invest in a good product or service with benefits and qualities that exceed the competition. The combined personality of the entrepreneur and sales person is a powerful force where one is the creator and driving force for the vision of a product or service.
Persistance
The single characteristic of the sales person is the skill and mastery of persistence. Persistence is the quality of one with a ‘definiteness of purpose and vision’. With clarity and vision you will overcome temporary defeat and stay firm to the path you have chosen. Through out history the great conquerors, adventurers and explorers have shared this same attribute. Without persistence opportunity is lost at the first hurdle and is replaced with failure.
Persistence is a quality often acquired through the experience of temporary defeat and failure and even a short period of disillusionment and despondency. It is often mastered when one has sacrificed and lost almost everything with nothing more left to loose before rebounding to fight the final battle to achieve ones goal and purpose.
Summary
I. Desires
II. Fears
III. Art of Persuasion
IV. Persistence
