They should be teaching this stuff in schools. Not just for future professional salespeople, but for those who will someday work in finance, engineering, marketing, law, medicine, even education and other non-business professions.
What are we talking about? It’s about fundamental and essential skill sets you’d want in all employees, not just your sales organization:
• Business Development - everyone sells something, and it’s not just ourselves, but ideas, attention and expanded impact
• Personal Engagement - we all interact, hopefully well, from introductions to conversations through insightful questioning
• Message Communication - articulate communication, verbal and written, is crisp, clear and structured, and a fading art
• Time Management - prioritized daily use of time, our most limited resource, determines wins and loses in all occupations
• Mental Discipline - purposeful actions toward absolute goals aligned with meaningful perspective withstands obstacles.
The art and science of sales is still often misunderstood and distorted. It is absolutely applicable to the foundations of successful living. I’m reminded that the lessons we teach in sales meetings, keynotes and training sessions are universal and apply well to sales rookies, veterans, managers, executives, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, and everyone in between.
Not everyone carries a quota, but everyone operates daily, at varying degrees of quality, with fundamental and essential skill sets.
