I love selling!
Nothing beats the high of winning a deal.
Sales is a way of life, I keep repeating to every other person. Five years of sales at Pickyourtrail and this is the journey I am most proud of and thrilled about to date.
Formal education will make you a living, but self-education will make you a fortune. — Jim Rohn.
Right out of college, while I was following the MBA dream clan, I landed a sales job. Like many other young adults, I lacked direction but all I had was the energy to want to make it big.
Here is what I was confident about: Amplifying my strengths.
I may not have a clear direction but I can learn anything if I have to. Figuring out the fear of lack of flair was the challenge ahead!
Of numerous learnings over the years, here are the top five from my sales and team management journey at Pickyourtrail
5 life lessons from sales that helped me in life -
1. Trust your gut.
Your gut call is the best version of god in you.
In pickyourtrail, we have a term called Pulse. The pulse of a client is deduced by the gut call of the sales consultant. Multiple other factors like the first impression, client’s intention, and occasion to travel help to deduce a pulse score. It was natural for one to get better at their pulse with experience and little did I know that this would spill over into my personal life decisions too. This was one of the best spillovers though! Yes, it is important to take objective and well-informed decisions, but listen to your gut beyond all that. Your confidence is your valued asset.
2. Progress is better than perfection
A hard-learned lesson and one that I would never forget. Keeping our minds busy with a growth mindset should be the goal to chase. Limiting our minds to perfectionism and wasting a lot of time trying to be perfect may not take us far. Personally for me, adapting to this thinking process hugely helped in the way I run my team. Driving momentum over the team’s perfection has shown great outputs. Pickyourtrail’s battle against COVID & rising again from the ashes stronger than ever gave me a harsh reminder that all it mattered was progressing forward and not perfection.
3. Numbers are important
The simple way I would put this is — anyone ignoring numbers is just being financially illiterate. India is one of the biggest markets and emerging as the fastest-growing economy but financial literacy stands at a mere >25% of the population. Owning your numbers can range from basic household math to building an elaborate portfolio. In my career, adapting this helped me bringing in closures quickly, sounding confident and knowledgeable to my clients, and team number projections.
4. Embrace the chaos of life
All your ecstasy in life is going to come from within — Edith Eger, The choice.
To accept the uncertainty of life and move forward anyway is the ability to embrace the chaos. With the pandemic going on, people would have seen the uncertainty of life, stalling career, complex nature of many things we come across. What has helped me moving forward, is to embrace the chaos. To stop overanalyzing, overthinking, not trying to take too many well-informed decisions, and stop trying to predict. Embracing the chaos is better than fighting it out. One thing would lead to another and it is wiser to build on our resilience to adapt and transform, rather than being stuck and procrastinate. Our chaotic sales team at Pickyourtrail are high delivering folks and go with the flow to adapt to the market surprises.
5. Ask Why?
Why settle when you can be curious? Asking why has the ultimate power to clarify anything. A smart question, not the one to be feared. Merely by just asking, we can turn around a lot of our thoughts, solve problems, understand better and learn more. It may feel too challenging or uncomfortable to ask. But by not asking, we give up critical information. Be it in the business world or your personal life, assuming is the dire thing to avoid. By not asking “why?”, you tend to cook up a story, you tend to make hasty decisions with incomplete/incorrect inputs and impact relationships. We avoid asking to not be answerable in return. The fear of being put in the spot hits us. But it is a smart way to grow. Asking your clients the right questions helps them get better clarity of their requirements and close a sale quicker. Making right decisions, impacting revenue, brand reputation, and maintaining relationships — Isn’t all this worth the little discomfort that the question “why” brings forth?
The kick of sales is an underrated superpower. Once you catch the rhythm, you are bound to enjoy the ride! What are your superpowers? Drop me a comment below and some clapping love if you liked what you read!
