Why Selling Feels Evil (And How to Fix It)
45sDirectly addresses a common emotional struggle with sales, creating instant relatability and curiosity about the solution.
▶ Play ClipAI Summary
Full Transcript
How do I sell something without feeling salesy? This is something I used to struggle with a lot and still do to an extent. There's a few things that I found really helped. The first one is to recognize that your fear of the word sales probably comes because like when you were, I don't know, 5 to 8 years old, something someone told you gave you like this profound negative experience with the idea of sales. Maybe like your
mom told you that like, "Oh, you know, I spoke to a salesman and he was such a grifter." Or whatever the thing might be. So, you have this idea that sales is an evil thing. So, when you are selling something, it feels evil. It feels bad. It feels like you're taking people's money against their will. But, the thing to appreciate is that when a commercial transaction takes place, it is because the person who is the buyer
and the seller both want the same thing. I.e. they want the customer to have the product, right? That's why the customer is paying money for the product and that's why the seller is giving it to them. So, actually value is exchanged on both sides. Another way of reframing this might be that you're not selling, you're merely offering them. You're making them an offer. "Would you like to buy this lemonade for $3?" If they say yes, fantastic.
If they say no, that's also fantastic. Another way to think about this is that sales is just education. You're not trying to get someone to buy something. That's not your agenda. Your agenda when having a conversation with them is to genuinely try and help them. It's a spirit of service rather than a spirit of salesmanship. You're trying to serve them. You're trying to help them. You're trying to understand the situation. And if you think that the
thing that you are offering, the thing that you're selling, can actually be the solution to a problem that they have, then of course you're going to ask them if it's okay if you tell them a little bit more about the thing. This is why all of this BS around like "Sell me this pen." This is just creates the completely wrong impression of what sales actually is. Because if you don't need a pen, why would I sell
you the pen, right? Like, but if you need a pen, then it's like, "Hey, I've got a pen for you." That's kind of the way to approach sales if you're doing it in like an ethical and non-scammy kind of way. It's basically an education process where you are making an offer only to someone who you think you can genuinely help with your product.