Yet experience shows it’s not always in the DNA. Many professional sales people can tell you stories about colleagues who started with personality traits that seemed incompatible with sales success, and ended up becoming masters of their craft.
It wasn’t a case of applying the ironic George Burns quip — “The key to success is sincerity; if you can fake that you've got it made” — rather, these stellar sales pros studied winning techniques and practiced them over many months and years. Like Johnny Carson, who was remote and disengaged when the cameras were off, and famously brilliant when they were on, these sales “unnaturals” learned to project the qualities necessary to identify needs, generate interest, build anticipation and close deals.
This phenomenon was the subject of a recent podcast that was intriguing on many levels. One of the topics covered was titled, “Why introverts can outsell the grinders and extraverts.” This is not always the case, or even typical, but it does demonstrate that command of basic sales tenets — along with a depth of understanding of human psychology — can unlock opportunities and build relationships.
One man who knew this well was Dale Carnegie. In 1936 he published one of the most influential books of all time, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Much has changed since the book became a bestseller, but Carnegie’s basic principles still provide a primer for anyone attempting to sell something to someone. Successful person-to-person interaction remains the key, and people across cultures invariably respond to many of his simple techniques.
To build healthy relationships in business and in life, Carnegie advised:
• Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
• Give honest, sincere appreciation
• Arouse in the other person an eager want
• Become genuinely interested in other people
• Smile
• Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Talk in terms of the other person’s interests
• Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely
• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
• Show respect for the other person’s opinion. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
• If you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically
• Begin in a friendly manner
• Get the other person saying, “Yes, yes.”
• Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
• Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers
• Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view
• Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires
• Appeal to the nobler motives
• Dramatize your ideas
• Throw down a challenge
• Begin with praise and honest appreciation
• Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
• Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
• Let the other person save face
• Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
• Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
• Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
• Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Reviewing Dale Carnegie’s biography, it’s safe to say that this modest Depression-era salesman wasn’t a born sales pro. But he was a gifted student, someone who studied people, behavior and techniques, and applied this knowledge to win friends, influence people — and always win the sale.