The best salespeople can change your life. Not because of what they sell you but how they make you feel.
More than ten years ago, I was a young entrepreneur, and I was excited about buying nice ties and nice suits. I spent a lot of money on looking "professional." (As you might notice, I've outgrown that by now.)
So, one day, I walked into an expensive store in a European city where I used to live, and I wanted to dress for success.
I'm one of those guys who walks into a store and says, "No, I don't need any help," when a salesperson approaches me.
But this sales guy is different. He is dressed really well and full of charisma. He gives me just enough space and steps in just at the right moment. We start chit-chatting, and he drops some interesting tidbits about the ties and the shirts.
Eventually, I've got everything I want. We go to the cashier, and the sales guy rings up all the items, puts them all together, and packages the whole thing beautifully for me. It all adds up to more than a thousand Euros.
My hand goes to pull out my wallet... and there's nothing. I forgot my wallet!
I just spent an hour in the store selecting expensive clothes, and I didn't have any money. Most people would feel embarrassed about this—so did I!
I just reached a new level of embarrassment. I was young, appearance mattered to me, and then forgetting my money and hearing this guy tell me "No"... I just wanted to disappear from the face of the earth for a moment. I'm starting to sweat, fumbling for words, and he continues talking:
I was amazed. "Seriously? This is over a thousand Euros worth of items, and you just give them to me? This is the first time I have shopped here."
Can you guess what happened next?
I left that store with a thousand Euro bag of ties and shirts. I drove back to my office, picked up my wallet, drove back to that store, and paid.
I can guarantee you that if the guy had put the stuff to the side, I would have either not shown up again or shown up weeks and weeks after. I'm just a really bad shopper. I don't often take time out of my day to go shopping. But because of what he did, he got his money immediately.
And you know what else?
I continued shopping at the store from that sales guy every single month. For the next two years that I lived there, I spent probably around a thousand Euros on average every single month.
Why?
because he made me feel incredible. He made me feel like somebody who was valued, trusted, and important. And this feeling never left me. Ten years later, I still tell the same story.
Take a Moment and Reflect
What was the best sales experience you've ever had as a customer?
Why was that the best sales experience? What did it do? How did it make you feel?
Experiences like these provide you with opportunities for the most meaningful learning and the deepest insights into how to sell.
To become a true master of the sales game, don't just consume sales courses, read books, or visit workshops. You need to dig deeper than words and pictures—it's the experiential and emotional level where the true sales insights unfold.
The Gift of Sales
When you really make an impact on somebody while you sell, that feeling, that moment you create, it might stay with them forever.
It's not just about making them a loyal customer. It's about making an impact on their life. I'm still telling this true sales man story ten years later on the other end of the world. Nobody up to that point, and I'm not even sure ever after that, has made me feel like that. It made me feel really special.
As a salesperson, you have the chance to make people feel special every single day—take that chance and run with it.
