Lets teach kids to sell
Today I came across this blog from Dan McGuire who owns Broadbean Technology and it really struck a cord with me. Imagine if only 10% of the youngsters that came into our industry really understood the value of selling, where would our industry be in 10 years?
There is a misconception in life of what sales is. Too many people think "I can't sell", when actually they probably sell in some form or another every day of their lives. I strongly agree with Dan about teaching the value of sales at a young age, more people would think about sales positively and understand the power of influence and communication and the old fashioned sales stigma would disappear.
Dan's Blog
Ok, you’re either with me on this one or you’re not! Teaching kids to sell? You read it right. What is the most valuable skill that I, as a business owner, possess? Its sales. Unquestionably.
Do you know what I was doing on October 2 2002 at 9am? It was the day Broadbean began. I wasn’t tweaking the business plan, calculating financial projections or designing a funky advert for the trade press. I was on the phone, selling. You can have the best product in the world but if you can’t sell it your business is finished..
Early September, 2003. What was I doing? Selling the concept of Broadbean to the guy we wanted to hire as technical director. (He’s still here by the way).Let’s go back a few years. What was I doing on July 19 1999? You got it… selling. Only this time I was selling myself at my first job interview. (I got the job). Hopefully you see where I’m going with this?
People need to learn how to sell, even if they don’t want a career in sales. We’re trying to create the next generation of entrepreneurs, the future of the nation, yet they’re being deprived of one of the most fundamental skills they can learn.
I asked a room of forty 16 year olds on an ‘Introduction to Business’ day at the Mayors Office recently how many wanted to run their own business. Forty hands went up. I then asked how many wanted to do sales. How many hands? 3.
“Only 3? What’s wrong with sales?” I enquired. One lad immediately replied “Who wants to spend their day knocking on doors trying to flog windows to someone’s nan?”. Very witty. Very wrong.
Sales is about so much more than the sell. It’s about believing in yourself. It’s about being liked. It’s about learning how to articulate yourself. It’s about negotiating. It’s about compromising. It’s about getting a place at uni. It’s about getting that job. I could go on.
Is it so crazy to teach kids to sell? I use sales, or something I learnt through sales, every day of my life and I always will. Why is such a valuable skill not taught to kids before they need to use it, so that they’re prepared? Even when I did business studies at college I wasn’t taught a single thing about how to sell and that, friends, is a travesty.
There is a misconception in life of what sales is. Too many people think "I can't sell", when actually they probably sell in some form or another every day of their lives. I strongly agree with Dan about teaching the value of sales at a young age, more people would think about sales positively and understand the power of influence and communication and the old fashioned sales stigma would disappear.
Dan's Blog
Ok, you’re either with me on this one or you’re not! Teaching kids to sell? You read it right. What is the most valuable skill that I, as a business owner, possess? Its sales. Unquestionably.
Do you know what I was doing on October 2 2002 at 9am? It was the day Broadbean began. I wasn’t tweaking the business plan, calculating financial projections or designing a funky advert for the trade press. I was on the phone, selling. You can have the best product in the world but if you can’t sell it your business is finished..
Early September, 2003. What was I doing? Selling the concept of Broadbean to the guy we wanted to hire as technical director. (He’s still here by the way).Let’s go back a few years. What was I doing on July 19 1999? You got it… selling. Only this time I was selling myself at my first job interview. (I got the job). Hopefully you see where I’m going with this?
People need to learn how to sell, even if they don’t want a career in sales. We’re trying to create the next generation of entrepreneurs, the future of the nation, yet they’re being deprived of one of the most fundamental skills they can learn.
I asked a room of forty 16 year olds on an ‘Introduction to Business’ day at the Mayors Office recently how many wanted to run their own business. Forty hands went up. I then asked how many wanted to do sales. How many hands? 3.
“Only 3? What’s wrong with sales?” I enquired. One lad immediately replied “Who wants to spend their day knocking on doors trying to flog windows to someone’s nan?”. Very witty. Very wrong.
Sales is about so much more than the sell. It’s about believing in yourself. It’s about being liked. It’s about learning how to articulate yourself. It’s about negotiating. It’s about compromising. It’s about getting a place at uni. It’s about getting that job. I could go on.
Is it so crazy to teach kids to sell? I use sales, or something I learnt through sales, every day of my life and I always will. Why is such a valuable skill not taught to kids before they need to use it, so that they’re prepared? Even when I did business studies at college I wasn’t taught a single thing about how to sell and that, friends, is a travesty.
posted by Heidi Whitelock @ 12:35
1 Comments:
At 21 May 2007 at 12:17 ,
Anonymous said...
Hi
I couldn't agree more. Maybe we could learn to identify kids who are good sellers (or in my experience good at being social chameleons) and help them to see what sales might hold for them.
Having been on the production management side of things in a large company for a long time I had never had an appreciation of the importance of sales. It was only recently having joined a smaller print company to run things that I was in touch with lots of customers. It was also here that I discovered how critically important sales and customer relatonship is. Fortunatley for me I realised, just as in this article, that I had spent my whole life selling ideas and concepts to people. Whether it be selling the idea of a 'need for improvement' to a member of my staff, or selling the benefits and reasons for why the MD and Board should invest in some new equipment.
This experience has even led me to thinking sales may be the future for me! Wherelse do you get the constant variety of changing places and people? Each new contact is a challenge requiring creativity and resoursefulness.
Sales may just rock!
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