“Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to sell your change.”
Mark Sanborn
Selling isn’t just for products—it’s about ideas, perspectives, and even yourself. It helps you learn the art of persuasion and value-driven conversations to succeed in any area of life.
Selling is a fundamental skill that goes far beyond just selling products. It is also about effectively communicating ideas, influencing people’s perspectives on important topics, and showcasing your value.
When was the last time you pitched a business concept or project? This is a form of selling.
When was the last time you went on a job interview? This is also a form of selling.
It is not just about selling widgets.
It is easier to sell a product if your customers already trust you and your ideas.
The ability to sell can open doors you never thought were open to you.
Why Is Learning How to Sell Important?
Learning to sell is valuable to your skill stack because it enhances personal and professional growth in several ways.
- Improve Your Communication Skills: To sell a product or yourself during an interview, you must learn to frame ideas, present solutions, and handle objections effectively. Selling improves your ability to communicate clearly, persuasively, and confidently. Think about a situation where you are pitching a new project at work. Without sales skills, you might immediately dive right in and explain the technical details. You could overwhelm your boss with too much detail before he understands the project’s potential. With sales skills, you would start the presentation by clearly stating the problem you are trying to solve. For example, “Our team has been struggling with project deadlines due to manual processes. I propose automating these tasks.” You would make better use of persuasion by highlighting the project benefits. “This process automation will reduce errors and waste by 30% and increase team productivity by 40%, helping us meet deadlines consistently.” You increase your chances of gaining buy-in by improving your communication skills, framing your idea with clear points, focusing on value, and projecting confidence.
- Help With Persuasion and Influence: Understanding how to sell and the techniques related to selling helps you become better at influencing others. This could used in business, negotiations, friendships, raising children, and many other daily interactions. Think about a situation where you are trying to persuade your family, especially your kids, to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Out of the gate, you might say, “We need to eat healthier because we’re gaining weight.” This approach sounds so critical that your family will likely resist it. Instead, you could identify a need or create problem awareness in the family. You could say, “I’ve noticed we’ve all been feeling a bit low on energy lately.” You could follow up by creating some emotional appeal, addressing any objections, and closing the deal with a call to action like, “How about we pick a recipe this weekend and give it a shot? Everyone can help!” Becoming efficient with persuasion and influence helps with leadership, teamwork, and convincing others to support your vision, goals, and priorities.
- Problem-Solving and Value Creation: Think about what a sales opportunity means. Sales is about solving problems and offering valuable solutions. When I started my audio import business in Japan years ago, it was easy to find companies in the United States and Europe that wanted me to represent their products in Japan. I was providing a valuable service: market entry into Japan. I was solving a problem for companies that wanted to export their products to Japan. Developing a mindset focused on solving problems and creating value helps in product development, entrepreneurship, and customer service. By understanding my customers’ need to enter the Japanese market, I solved real problems, ensuring better market fit and customer satisfaction. Look for problems friends, co-workers, bosses, and customers are trying to solve and find solutions for them. Your solution creates value and is something you can sell.
- Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and influence one’s and others’ emotions. It is a critical component for personal growth, leadership, teamwork, and successful social interactions. To be successful at selling, you need empathy, active listening, and the ability to build relationships. Selling helps you improve interpersonal relations and the satisfaction of customers and others. By having the ability to recognize a customer’s, friend’s, or manager’s emotional reaction, then showing understanding and offering a solution, you build trust and improve your opportunities to sell.
- Networking and Relationship Management: Becoming experienced in sales helps you excel at building and nurturing relationships. This is essential for career advancement and business success. I started as a low-level manager in Japan and worked myself to a director-level position. In these roles, I developed close relationships with leadership at our corporate office in the United States and across the Asia Pacific region. I became known as someone who would say what I would do and do what I said. Because I established strong relationships and had many successes, a new role was created for me to lead information technology across the entire region. This role created opportunities that I never thought possible. I started my career many years ago as a programmer for a small marketing research company in the States. I sat in a small room filled with cubicles and no windows and never traveled. In this newly created role, I got to live in Japan. I led teams across the region and traveled to Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, and Australia. I cannot place a value on the experience I gained during that time.
- The Entrepreneurial Advantage: The ability to sell creates something I call “The Entrepreneurial Advantage.” Entrepreneurs must sell their ideas to investors, products to customers, and visions to teams. This is a skill all of us should work hard to develop. Entrepreneurs must sell their ideas to investors, products to customers, and visions to teams. We must do the same thing daily to succeed in life. Even if you don’t own a business, acting like an entrepreneur in spirit helps you take control of your life, career, and personal development by fostering a mindset of initiative, problem-solving, and resilience. By thinking like an entrepreneur, you become the CEO of your life, taking ownership of your goals, actions, and future.
- Career Advancement: The basic concept is that sales skills are transferable and valuable in almost any profession. People who can sell and promote their ideas faster often get promotions and climb the career ladder faster. I saw the need for an Information Technology leader across the entire Asia Pacific while I was still just the IT director of Japan. The skills I developed in this role were transferable to the Asia Pacific role, and I could sell two things to my leadership. I was able to sell the need for an Asia Pacific role to coordinate IT projects, teams, and business priorities across the region. I was also able to sell my leadership that I was the best and only person for the role.
- Personal Development: This one may be self-evident and summarizes everything above. Learning to sell fosters confidence, self-awareness, and adaptability, leading to personal growth. I would like you, as the reader, to walk away with one principal concept after reading this article: Selling isn’t about pushing products—it’s about communicating value, solving problems, and building trust. Personal development means learning to “sell” your ideas, goals, and vision to yourself and others.
Learning to sell is a powerful skill that extends far beyond business. It involves communicating value, solving problems, and building trust. Mastering sales techniques improves communication, influence, and emotional intelligence while fostering creativity, resilience, and leadership.
Here are a few practical steps to get started:
- Develop Your Value Proposition: Reflect on your unique skills, experiences, and ideas. What sets you apart? Write down how you can bring value to a team, organization, or client. Practice articulating this value clearly and confidently. I have written a newsletter, Keep A Daily Journal, highlighting the importance of writing things down. Writing down your thoughts and feelings helps you better understand your needs and emotions, leading to greater self-awareness and personal growth.
- Master the Art of Trust-Building: Further down this list, I discuss the importance of learning to communicate well. This is foundational to our ability to build strong, trust-filled relationships, which are critical to becoming the best version of ourselves. You can focus on building genuine connections and earning trust before pitching an idea or offering a product. This includes listening actively, understanding your audience’s needs, and aligning your solutions to their challenges. Trust amplifies your ability to persuade effectively.
- Leverage Opportunities to Sell Yourself: This is one I sometimes struggle with. I am an IT professional by nature and an introvert. It is something I push myself all the time to improve. Start viewing everyday scenarios as opportunities to practice selling. Whether it’s sharing an idea at work, networking, or even job interviews, focus on presenting your value in a way that resonates with others. Use these moments to refine your storytelling and communication skills.
When I sold my value as an employee to several companies in Japan, it changed my career and opportunities. I went from an IT guy at a small company in Michigan to an international IT guy living and working in Japan and, ultimately, across Asia Pacific.
Do not sell selling short. It is a skill that anyone serious about getting ahead, improving, and becoming successful should consider. I ignored it for years and have only visions of used car salesmen trying to finagle their next deal. When you understand selling, trust is an instrument to communicate value, solve problems, and build trust; you will open the doors to many opportunities.
The Day Warrior
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