Sales lessons from my 7 year old: Humility / Just do it
TweetSince I started writing this blog, I’ve looked for sales lessons in everyday life. I blogged a few months ago on sales lessons in a chick flick. This week, I was treated to a very nice sales lesson from my seven year old daughter.
The other nite, my wife called me and asked me how long it would be before I got home from work because that nite, Erin, my seven-year-old daughter had to go to the PTA board meeting in town and my wife wanted to know if I could watch the other two kids, while she took Erin there. I wasn’t going to make it home in time, but determined that if we met each other at the school, we would arrive just as the meeting would start. We could meet there, Erin could do what she needed to do, and then we could all grab a quick dinner.
When I arrived, I saw the father of one of Erin’s best friends, and I started chatting him, and he said, “I see Erin was one of the finalists too. Isn’t that great?” It turns out that in order to teach the kids about the election, the school had put together a mock election where each student put together a platform for what should be the official healthy snack food for the entire school. Each student wrote an essay, and then it went through an entire election process. The top students in the school were asked to present at their platform at the board meeting. My daughter and her best friend were one of the top students.
When I asked my daughter about the selection process, and how she got selected and about what am amazing feat this was for her, she actually looked surprised that I was so proud of her. It never occurred to her that this was a big deal. It just was what it was.
I am telling this story not to gush about my daughter (ok…maybe a little), but to illustrate something amazing about kids that we often forget about – and something critical to good sales people: humility and the just do it attitude. My daughter didn’t think about failure. She didn’t think about self-glory. She only did what she was supposed to do, and she did it to the best of her ability. Because she didn’t really worry about failure, she wound up performing well above all of her peers.
She went out and just DID IT. When we as salespeople create imaginary obstacles in front of ourselves, we can lose before we win. We have to just go out there and try our best, and not worry about rejection, and not worry about losing deals, we need to just go for it.
Exhibiting humility, as well, is something that is key to a good salesperson. No-one wants to deal with a cocky or pushy salesperson. Your amazing feats will speak for themselves, and the customers themselves will be your badges of honor. Think about how MORE proud I was of my daughter because she didn’t (and hasn’t since) gloated about her honor. Our customers do the same, and reward us with additional business.
