Every Job Is a Sales Job

You might not be a professional salesperson, but you still sell all the time.

No matter what their professional job is, everyone is a salesperson. It’s a universal truth that life is about selling. Successful selling isn’t so much a business aptitude or a sales competency; it’s a basic operating skill. You need this essential ability to close “life sales”– to get people to do what you want and need them to do.

No matter who you are or what you do, you deal with different life sales. If you can’t sell, you face trouble. If you can sell, you can expect smooth sailing. People who are effective at life sales and commercial sales understand a basic truth: Successful selling is never about them; it’s always about making things better for the other person.

Typical life sales include getting your children to brush their teeth, asking your spouse to pick up the dry cleaning after work, convincing your book club to read your favorite novel and routinely asking those around you to do favors for you. These are your “asks.” Seeking and granting favors is life’s eternal merry-go-round. You ask ...