Sorry, I’m going to swear, make sure the children aren’t around.

Share. Please don’t judge me for my foul language.

“I don’t sell, I share.” I’ve heard this so many times it kills me. The definition of share is “to use, participate in, enjoy, receive, etc.” The example given on dictionary.com is, “The two chemists share the Nobel Prize.” That is not what you are doing with your business.

When I think of sharing, I think of when I tell my kids to share their toys. There is an implicit giving without asking for anything in return. Imagine telling your kid to share a toy. And then after a few times they now they start charging for the use of that toy. That doesn’t make any sense. I think that’s one of the reasons that there is such resistance for so many people to turning around and charging people. It doesn’t feel right. Because “sharing.”

You do sell. It’s ok, it’s not a big deal. It just means you exchange a product or service for money. What you believe about what you do matters, because it drives your behavior, your customer’s response, and your team culture.

How sharing v. educating v. selling plays out:

  1. Your behavior: When you are sharing, you are giving away product freely and you are killing your profit. It also makes it nearly impossible to stay in integrity and ask people to buy. When you are selling you will communicate in such a way that you will ask for the order, and people will gladly buy.
  2. Your customers: You say you share essential oils. They say, “cool, are you going to give me some?” and then they never buy. You say, “I educate people on how to use natural solutions” and your customer responds, “cool… I’ll let you know if I want an education on that…” But when you say, “I sell essential oils” you might right into someone that says, “cool, I want to buy some.”
  3. Your team culture: Do you want to attract people who want to share or educate, or sell? The person who responds by wanting to sell is going to come in with eyes wide open, have less baggage and be ready to make it happen. What would that do to your culture? Or do you want the hard work of taking a bunch of teachers who didn’t know they had to sell and then teaching them how to sell? That seems like a lot of work to me!

Interacting with a good sales person is a joy. When you acknowledge that what you do is simple and you just sell whatever product, good things happen. This means you are clear on your role, you are proud of what you do, and you ar eready to learn the skills of your profession. That is the type of person people want to follow!

*The next workshop is the Sales Leadership Workshop. It’s April 15th from 8-10am PST and it’s only $27. Sign up or learn more at emergesalestraining.com/salesleadership.