Taku's Blog++: [The Essence of Sales] Sales Is the Act of Actively Trying to Make the Other Person Happier.

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Sales. When people hear that word, they picture

"the job of selling products,"
"the job of closing contracts,"
"the job of persuading people,"
"the job of chasing quotas."

That's the image a lot of people carry.

But what if that very definition is wrong?

If it is, the way you sell changes quite a lot.

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Here's what I learned!

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Listening to sales consultant Masao Nakamura this time, the line that stayed with me most was this one.

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Sales is

the act of actively trying to make the other person happier.

Selling the product isn't the goal.

The product or service is merely a "means" of carrying that person to a better place than where they are now.

Once that lands, the whole landscape of sales looks different.

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Say there's someone worried about dullness in their skin.

One salesperson immediately produces the product:

"In that case, this serum. It contains a vitamin C derivative."

Out comes the product, straight away.

That's the sales call you've seen a hundred times.

The other one asks,

"When does the dullness bother you most?"
"In the morning when you look in the mirror? Or in the evening?"

They ask.

Even if both are handling the same serum, these two started from completely different places.

One is thinking, "I want to sell this product."

The other is thinking, "I want to know this person."

That difference is enormous.

The moment a seller starts thinking "how do I get them to buy," the other person braces.

"How do I say no?"
"Isn't this expensive?"
"Do I really need it?"
"I want this conversation to end."

Seller and buyer end up facing each other.

In a way, it's a tug of war.

But real sales isn't about facing each other.

It's about standing side by side.

"Where is it you want to go?"
"What would you need to get there?"
"Let's think it through together."

Do that, and you're no longer seller and buyer.You're a team looking at the same future.

That's where trust begins.

In Nakamura-san's talk, what struck me most was his idea of "trust-based selling."

Sales that don't work start light and get heavier toward the end.

You say hello,
you explain the product,
you give the presentation,

and then at the very end,

"So, what do you think?"
"Why not decide today?"
"There's a bonus if you act now."

All the force goes into the close.

But sales that work do the opposite.

They put the most effort in at the very beginning.

Get to know the person.
Listen to them.
Understand them.
Build trust.

And then the other person starts to say,

"Actually, I've been struggling with something."
"What I really want is…"

They start talking.

Nakamura-san said that once you reach this point, 70 percent of the sales process is already done.

I think that's exactly right.

Without trust in place, however good the product, any explanation sounds like a pitch.

But once trust exists, a proposal sounds like the continuation of a conversation.

That gap is huge.

And sales has one more important role.

That is:

finding out what the person truly wants.

For example,

"I want to start doing something for my health"

— say a woman in her fifties says that.

On the surface, it looks like she wants a health supplement.

But as you listen, out might come:

"My daughter is getting married next year."
"I want to be there looking well."
"And after that, I want to stay well enough to travel with my grandchildren."

That kind of story may emerge.

What this person truly wants isn't a health supplement.

It's a future where she spends time with her family, in good health.

The product is the means of getting to that future.

Get this wrong, and sales turns immediately into a conversation about specs.

Price.
Ingredients.
Features.
How it differs from the competition.

And then the other person starts comparing.

"Is there anything cheaper?"
"Is there anything better?"
"How much is it online?"

You've climbed into the price-competition ring yourself.

But start from the future instead —

"What is it you really want to become?"

— and the conversation changes.

The worry or wish someone puts into words may be only a fraction of it.

"I want dinner prep to be easier"

— someone saying that may really be thinking,

"I want to sit around the table with my family, unhurried."
"I want to listen to my kid without getting irritated."
"I want a little room in my heart after I get home from work."

That may be what's underneath.

Sales, I think, is also the work of putting what lies beneath into words together.

And then there was a deeper point still.

Customers often say,

"Nothing's really wrong."
"I'm fine as I am."

They say that.

And so,

"There was no need there."

is how some salespeople come back.

But is that actually true?

It may be that the person simply doesn't know what "better" looks like.

For example, to someone saying,

"Nothing's really a problem right now,"

you might ask,

"What if you had a little room to breathe after work, and could go out with your family on a day off without feeling wiped out the next day?"

Try asking that.

And they might say,

"Well, that would be lovely."

That might be the answer.

What was born in that moment is "hope."

Sales isn't only about searching for needs.

It's also the work of creating hope.

Of course, this doesn't mean manufacturing needs by stoking anxiety.

"There's also a future like this available to you"

— you show them a possibility they hadn't yet seen.

And then you sort out, together:

where they are now,
the future they want,
and the gap in between.

That gap becomes the need.

Only now do you get to the proposal.

But a proposal is not a product explanation.

First,

"why are things the way they are right now?"

You sort out the cause.

Next,

"how can this be solved?"

You sort out the method.

And on top of that:

"As one means of making that method real, there is this product."

That's the shape of it.

It's the same as a doctor.

"My head hurts."

No doctor hands over medicine the instant you say that.

They listen,
check your condition,
consider the cause,
decide on a treatment,
and prescribe the medicine last.

Sales is the same.

"I get tired easily."

The instant you hear that, replying

"In that case, this product!"

is far too fast.

This requires something of the seller too: the ability to wait.

You hold back the urge to get the product out quickly.

Listen.
Understand.
Look at the future.
Sort out the cause.

And bring it out last.

That's the order.

One more thing that mattered was the idea of "self-congruence."

Out loud you're saying,

"This is for you."
"I really do recommend it."

while inside you're thinking,

"I hope they buy."
"I'm short of my numbers this month."
"Does this actually suit this person?"

That's what's going on underneath.

That kind of gap reaches the other person more than you'd expect.

Your expression.
Your voice.
Your pauses.
Your eyes.
The air around you.

People pick up a great deal beyond words.

So in sales, what matters is this:

Do you genuinely want to be useful to this person?

Do you genuinely believe in the product?

Are you proud of your work?

Are you interested in the other person?

This is where it counts.

Maybe this is why copying the words of people who sell well doesn't work on its own.

If you're going to copy a top salesperson, copy not just

"what they say"

but

"the state of heart they bring to the person in front of them."

Copy that instead.

And then, the close.

This, too, isn't "the technique of making someone buy."

What it really is:

supporting someone so they can choose, convinced, for themselves.

"It's cheaper today."
"You really should decide now."

It isn't about forcing a decision.

"Is there anything you're unsure about?"
"Let's work through this part together."
"I think this one suits you better. But in the end, please decide for yourself."

You support the decision that way.

Making someone buy and letting someone choose are different things.

People treasure what they chose themselves.

And sales doesn't end the moment someone buys, either.

If anything,for the customer, that's where it starts.

Buying a diet product doesn't make you lose weight that day.

Are they using it properly?
Are they running into trouble?
Are they able to keep it up?
Are they getting results?

You stay involved that far.

If you contacted them every day before the contract and your replies slow down the moment they buy,

"Ah — they just wanted the sale,"

is what comes across.

Conversely, if you're someone who stays just as involved after the purchase,

"I'm glad I chose this person"

is what they feel.

And referrals grow from there.

A referral comes

"Could you introduce me to someone?"

— less because you asked that,

and more as the result of creating an experience someone wants to tell others about

— that may be closer to the truth.

The part about money stuck with me too.

If you have genuinely been useful, and the person says "thank you" and pays you for it, there is no need to feel guilty about receiving it.

Being cheap isn't the only way to serve a customer.

Profit is what keeps the company going.
It protects the livelihoods of the people who work there.
It funds the next product.
It lets you deliver value to even more people.

So,

"raising revenue is a bad thing"

simply isn't true.

But underneath it all sits the question:

are you truly delivering value?

— that is the question underneath.

That's the part you can't let slip.

Listening to all this, I thought sales is a little like a confession of love.

"I want to be useful to you."

You tell them that.

Being turned down once doesn't mean you stop caring about the person.

When they need you, you try to be of help again.