For some time now I have been testing the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ with almost everyone I meet, including senior leadership teams (comprising of HR, Finance, IT, Operations, and Sales), primary school teachers and administration staff, senior banking risk professionals, and health professionals (including my podiatrist and GP).

I am curious to see how people respond and how they see themselves in relation to the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’.

Often when one mentions the words ‘selling’ or ‘sales’ you can see people visibly recoil in disgust, with many immediately saying something like “I don’t sell” or “It’s not my job”.  As discussed in previous posts, people often reference limited stereotypes about selling which are usually tainted with negative, manipulative, references that most people find offensive and unable to relate to.

However, since I have been asking people to consider the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ I have been pleasantly surprised at the responses.  It appears that most agree with the statement, whether they are officially in a sales role or not.

While initially, some people viewed the statement as only applying to a commercial transaction where money was exchanged and did not see themselves related to sales at all, they soon opened up as we explored the concept further and applied the principle to any form of exchange between two or more people. When we discussed that most people essentially work in a ‘contact dependant’ career where some form of exchange is essential for them to succeed in their job we then agreed that, indeed, ‘everybody lives by selling something’.

Take for instance, a recent experience I had where I was interviewed (Michael Parkinson style), by the Head of Risk for a major Australian bank, in front of his senior leadership team all of whom are senior risk professionals.

Now in most organisations ‘risk’ is not usually associated positively with ‘sales’.  In fact, there is often a ‘standoff’ between risk and sales – the ‘us versus them’ approach.   I have seen both sides of the fence roll their eyes at the mention of the other.

For this interview I was asked to expand upon the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ and the Principle of Exchange.  My client sponsor (and interviewer) has worked with me for some years and wanted to raise to a conscious level the importance of proactive, open, and transparent relationships.  He knew that the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ may be a challenge for some, however he felt it was so important he was prepared to take the risk (pardon the pun).  The good news is that it was received in a favourable light, even for a tough audience like this.

Here is an excerpt from a communication piece that went out to the group post the session.  The PIE Model is especially well worth a read:

“…Essentially Sue believes that if we have an idea, product, service, skill, capability or talent by which we earn a living we need to be able to sell, in the general sense of the word. To put it another way, in order to maximise our impact and ongoing influence we need to ensure our talents and capabilities are visible to those who need to be influenced.

In a previous life I used a model called the “PIE Model”. This suggests that 70% of an individual’s impact or effectiveness is defined by their Performance (P), 20% by their Image (I) and 10% by their Exposure (E) to the right people within the business. Whether the percentages are correct or not is moot.

The point is that Performance alone will not maximise your impact. You also have to be seen as credible and have ready access to the decision makers. Imagine the world’s greatest Op Risk professional who portrays an image that alienates the business team they work with or equally a super star technocrat in Market Risk who sits in a corner all day never interacting with their business partners or leaders. Both will do a good job, but neither will create an impact to demand respect or influence their business leaders.

To be clear – I am very keen that we all perform to the highest possible standard. I also want us all to focus on becoming more effective by improving our interaction with our business and functional partners.

Consider your exposure to the broader business, think about how you communicate with and influence your risk and functional colleagues, reflect on how your persona and image impact on the messages that you are trying to convey. If you’ve never considered this before discuss it with your line manger and build it into your development plan.

One other aspect of Sue’s message that resonated with me was her assertion that a great salesperson will build trust, communicate in a transparent way and do what they say they will do. This creates their competitive advantage as sales people. Sounds like a good set of principles to me and I believe that these traits are also those of a successful Risk professional!”

I commend the leaders of this business for taking a stand and putting the concept out there to be discussed openly and candidly.

Why is this important to you and all the people in your business?

The message is clear that we all are, indeed, responsible for how we manage our careers, our perceptions, our image, and our roles within businesses and the broader community.

We all affect each other in terms of how we relate and how we communicate our intentions and actions.  Sure, it is the primary responsibility of the sales team to go out and proactively source new business. However, we are all representatives of our businesses – from the back room to the front counter, from the customer service call to an internal email, from the company website to the comments on your Facebook page or your Tweets.

How we all speak about and reference the organisation and the people within can influence and impact on sales results and ultimate success of the organisation.

Many people who know me have heard me say that I would love every role in every business to have a sales capability defined in it.  So far the signs are promising as it appears that nearly everyone I speak to is able to relate to ‘everybody lives by selling something’ at its broadest level.

So why not ask your people how they feel about the concept ‘everybody lives by selling something’ and let me know they have to say using the Request information form.