I didn’t become a psychologist to do sales…

Ruth Harrowfield – BA/BSc, MSc Hons, PGDip I/O Psych, PGDip Science (Cl. Psych)

Imagine my surprise going into my first role in organisational psychology when I realised I had to sell solutions; people wouldn’t just line up at my door to pay for my world-changing skills!! 😯

That’s the reality – to do your work, someone’s gotta buy it! And for someone to buy it, someone’s gotta sell it. 💡💡

I muddled my way through the first few years, went on a sales course but it didn’t really translate to what I was doing, found sales conversations pretty uncomfortable – there was this feeling that I had to try and convince people to buy what I offered.

It wasn’t until I grasped some essential principles of sales that I experienced a turnaround – and a huge sense of relief … No longer did I think I had to push 💩 uphill and force a sale… instead my role was to help others to work out what they wanted.

Two of my favourite sales principles that we teach in our training are…

🔎🔎Curiosity. Make sure you understand everything you can about the customer’s needs and wants – help them uncover needs they didn’t realise they even had. People primarily buy based on emotion, but they use logic to justify their decisions. Help people to articulate all their needs so you can determine a logical solution to an emotionally driven need.

👂👂Listening. Regardless of how predictable the pain points are, or how strong the temptation is to rush clients through the process, be sure to take the time – every time – to listen and then demonstrate your listening by sharing back what you have learned about them and their needs. This serves to build trust and to ensure you have an accurate understanding of the need you are attempting to resolve.

If your role involves selling, remember it’s not your responsibility to bamboozle your customer with info on all the ways you could help them.

Instead, use curiosity and listening skills to help them articulate what they need and then you are in the best position possible to work out how your offering may or may not fit their need.

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We’re in the training business – human skills to be precise. We help people to understand themselves, understand others and therefore communicate in a more effective, meaningful way.

I’m Ruth Harrowfield, and together with my partner Sam, we run Harrowfield People Development, a strategic learning agency based in Auckland, New Zealand.

We draw on the disciplines of organisational and behavioural psychology to provide fit-for-purpose experiences that build capability and confidence.

We help business leaders to bring out the potential that they see in their people by shaping habits of thinking, communication and action in the workplace. Talk to us today.