I was honored to be riding with someone the other day. She is an up and coming terrific professional salesperson. It was the second time in about 4 weeks that I had gotten this chance. As we were riding around this nice young lady asked me how come my small talk was so relaxed? It seemed that whoever I met I was very comfortable around. This inspired tonight’s post. I warn you, you’re gonna hate it.

One of the secrets in being a true Sales Professional is to be able to relate to all people! I have interacted with thousands of salespeople in my career and very few have the ability to go up and down the ladder of different kinds of people and feel comfortable. For example I have sold the lowest ranking military person to commanders and captains. I have sold truck drivers and bank presidents. Presidents of major corporations to the people just starting out. Almost every kind of profession I have sold.

Now the question is, what allowed me to do this? This is the part you are going to hate. I am just a high school graduate but I have literally read hundreds of books. I have sold in almost every state. I listen to 24 hour news constantly. What I realized at an early age in my sales career was that unless I educated myself about this great country, and kept myself informed about what was going on around me and the world I would only be a part professional Salesperson.

In other words, with some people, I had to take my game down a few notches in the ladder and wallow in the mud with those people and understand their life’s problems, and take my game up quite a few notches and understand how other people lived their lives. By doing this I became a person for all seasons. No matter what environment you asked me to perform in I could succeed. I became a true professional salesperson because I now had a chance to sell anyone at anytime, anyplace. By the way I am not just limited to news…sports, music, science, religion, just about anything someone would like to talk about, I can converse on their level.

So what I am trying to encourage you to do is read, read, and read some more! I don’t know who once said this but you can travel the world in a good book. Listen to the news and try to understand what is going on around you. You will never know when your knowledge will give off an air of confidence that will make someone believe in you! It might be a difference maker.

“The Specialist”