If you are a parent, student, teacher, musician, actor, doctor, laborer, or currently doing nothing for work, you are a salesperson. Everyone sells something. Everyone is in business for him or herself. You are in the business of marketing or selling your services and skills. Even when already employed, you are constantly selling others ideas, reasons for promotion, comfort, etc. In this respect, everyone should have a good understanding of the key concepts of both sales and marketing to attract success.

Selling does not necessarily have to involve the exchange of money. People sell something to somebody just about every day and rarely realize they are selling nor even fully understand the sales process. Sales is an important, frequent, and necessary part of life. The better we are at it, the more often we will get the things we want.

• The salesperson sells goods or services to customers
• The parent sells values and wisdom to their children
• The teacher sells knowledge to students
• The student sells desire for knowledge to teachers (and sometimes excuses)
• The doctor sells skills, advice, and comfort to patients
• The actor sells entertainment to the audience

Since you are a salesperson, why not be a great salesperson? All too often I hear, “I hate sales” or worse, “I hate salespeople.” What these people really mean to say is “I dislike pushy salespeople who annoy me” (to me, the word “hate” is the worst four letter word I know). Do not be prejudiced against salespeople, or any group for that matter. If you are one of these anti-salesperson people, think back to all the times you bought anything where someone knowledgeable and friendly helped you by educating you about the product or service and perhaps even saving you money in the process. The more you can appreciate the value of the salesperson, the more you will do to improve your own sales skills.

I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation. Sales skills are a large part of success in anything you do. Learn to embrace them and enjoy their benefits.