Selling Without Selling

Many people find selling so odious. I don't know why. Do you? I enjoy selling a lot, especially when the prospect is all ears to your sales pitch. But even if he or she isn't, I find the challenge to eke out a sale from the cynical an amusing adventure. No, I never hardsell. I'm not that desperate. I still can afford meals even without making any sale in a day. But I keep selling anyway. I just love to sell. It's what I call selling without selling. 

It's more an experiment. Like a dare. You dare yourself to sell like some kind of a game. Never mind if the prospect doesn't buy. Just experiment. Don't target any goal. Just start talking. It starts with a silly thought about making people react and watching them do so. You're like a sociologist or psychologist taking a survey. How would he react when offered to buy an elephant? Would this guy buy at least the idea? Would he bite the bait of my sales closing?

You may try selling an elephant or the North Pole or a real product--your product. Make an adventure of it, instead of a serious sales talk you must close into a purchase. Selling without selling is fun. I know--you have a sales target, a quota, right? No matter. You can try selling without selling. Do it during casual meets with anyone you meet. Don't be too talkative, just get into a conversation naturally. Like what I did one fine Sunday morning...

I and my wife were talking to a friend we've not seen in months. We talked about her work and her coming wedding and her other plans. It was she doing most of the talking. You wouldn't see a trace of me readying a sales remark to be inserted somewhere in the conversation. I was just enjoying everything and obviously relaxed. That's how you settle your prospect and get him or her off guard.

Then I released the bomb. I asked her about her plan to resign from work soon and how someone might try to talk her into doing a direct selling business after she quit work, the latest business that's been somewhat the talk of the town. "What business?" she asked. Well, she shouldn't have asked. That was the opportunity. I casually talked about the product and how it's been benefiting many people and bla, bla, bla. My wife joined in the chorus.

Did she buy? You bet. And she'd be buying more because we've arranged for a demo soon. And the whole thing was so casual. Like how friends would talk about a movie they've seen and then suddenly you remember somethings and say, "Oh by the way, have you heard about the new restaurant in town? You should try it!" No tension, no pressure, and you lose the friendship of fewer people. You know how some people tend to shy away from you after you try to sell them something, as if you've turned into a criminal.

Of course, it's different when you have to present the business during an orientation or during an appointment with a referral who's a total stranger. Get ready for the stress and pressure. But even then, just relax. Do your best, but if no sale materializes, so what? Just enjoy everything and do better next time. Learn from the mistakes or shortcoming if any. Just keep selling without selling.

Never Mind If You're Ugly..

Yeah, never mind if you're ugly..as long as you're rich! That's what an apparels magnate told me recently. Money can make you look much better, in fact the best in looks may even fall madly for you. The worse tragedy is being poor and ugly, too. Jobless and ugly big time is tolerable. But poor and ugly? Oh my...

Some people can live with good-looking but poor. Poor is not a problem. Simply workout a business, like a networking business, which affords image buildup at the same time that you're growing a network. But take my advice; if you're ugly (and be honest if you are), by all means work out a way to be rich. Grace does not cover remaining poor and ugly. Everybody's given a chance to get rich. Then, if you do, it lends that optical illusion that makes people see you as good-looking. So, never mind if you're ugly, as long as you have fat checks.

Looks do not matter to God or after you die. But it matters while you're alive and mingling with fellowmen, especially your loved ones--and if you think of others' welfare. Don't be egotistic or selfish; know for sure that your looks affect other people so much. You may not realize it fully well but people close to you or even those unrelated to you are affected about how you look. I mean, if people scowl at you or reject you because you're ugly, how do you think your family would feel about it? 

I know of people who lose their appetites once they see ugly people. No kidding. Yeah, it's bad character to be thus, but that's how they feel about it. At least they're honest. You may say you don't care how they feel about you as long as you're not doing them any wrong. But to them you are--your looks make them sick. Don't impose your high principles about how beauty is really in one's heart, not how you look physically. If you believe that, go on  doing so, but you should also think about others. And that's what counts in good character--how you think about other's welfare more than how you think of yours. Like how the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.

No it's not about pleasing everybody. It's about being presentable enough as best as you can so that less people are offended.

This is not do degrade you or anything but to make you see that there's hope. There's a way. If you use the ability God gave you to produce wealth (and He's given each one of us that), then that wealth can do a makeover and transform you (in people's minds, at least) into someone good-looking, almost like a miracle. No, it's not about turning too materialistic; it's about turning into something human beings can identify with and relate to. Once you get this, you can say that never mind if you're ugly as long as you got money, better if you got lots of it.

And this is what going jobless big time is all about--to be able to say, never mind if I'm just like this, the type that people despise because I'm not good enough to them. As long as I have lots of money--more money than  what my detractors have--I'm good. I'm able to live freely, independently, with dignity and self-respect, and nobody can just push me around. Most people respect money. And even if some of them don't, at least they cannot touch me or my loved ones--or at least have a hard time trying to do so.

Money's God's gift to make the world around you a bit tamer. Jesus said make use of worldly riches to gain friends for yourself. You can only be friends with abusive people or opportunists if they cannot make a slave of you. Moreover (and this is the best thing), you can help needy people more if you have the money. Then you become good looking to everyone, friends and enemies alike. Then it doesn't matter how you look--never mind if you're ugly.