Selling or the ability to positively influence the people around you is a crucial life skill needed by everyone on this planet. The ability to sell is most certainly not limited to only those select few, who have sales professional printed on their business cards. Anyone who wants to succeed in life needs to hone their ability to sell or said differently, improve their ability to positively influence the people around them to help or support them.

The Merriam Dictionary defines Selling as “The action of persuading or influencing another to a course of action or to the acceptance of something” Does that sound like a skill, which will help you to improve your life and accelerate your path towards the achievement, meaning and fulfilment you desire?

Hone your Selling Skills
So when I speak about improving your ability to Sell, I am referring to improving a crucial life skill, where you are able to hone your ability to convince, persuade, negotiate or just simply get your own way with others. This includes things like debating, getting along with the people around you, exchanging goods or services, convincing that beautiful girl or handsome guy to go on a date with you, persuading investors to support your new entrepreneurial ideas, negotiating with your bank manager to extend your business overdraft or if you are a sales professional, showing your customer your sincere desire to help them.

Influence = Achievement
The degree to which you are able to successfully influence the outcomes in your world, dictates how successful you will be. I am sure that you have heard the saying “It is not what you know, but who you know that matters” That is absolutely true, the people you know or get to know, will most certainly influence the way your life will turn out. Imagine how much easier it would be to get these people to support you, if you invested effort into honing your selling skills or your ability to positively influence them, so that they could see the value you have to offer. They would more easily throw their weight behind someone, who they see, the value in, than someone that may let them down.

Receipt of Commission
The payment of commission is synonymous with sales professional’s right. Although you are involved in sales all day, every day, you never receive a commission payment, right. Wrong, every time you get your own way, you have just received a commission payment. As you know the exchange of value between two parties is not always in the form of money. The greatest payments or commissions I have received in my life have had nothing to do with the exchange of money.

Recognition from someone you respect and whose opinion really matters to you is one of the greatest commission payments you can get or the love you get from your spouse for the great relationship you have created together, is one of the greatest commission payments anyone can receive. True love, I believe is the ultimate commission, you can be rewarded with. It is the rewarded to the people, who can positively influence the right person to see their true, authentic value and then it is further enhanced, by investing time and effort into taking care of each other.

Even your good health is a commission, paid to you for making the right food choices or for investing time into exercising every day. Again selling is involved in creating good health. You need to sell yourself on the idea of making better food choices, feeding your brain a diet of education and inspiration, rather than sensational news and then finally you need to sell yourself on the concept of exercising every day. Selling or the ability to positively influence the people around you is indeed a crucial life skill.

Selling or Positive Influence
Selling is about life and every interaction you have with other people involves selling to some degree or other. The more you hone your selling skills, the more you will be equipped to positively influence the people around you to support you. The secret to make this really work for you is to always be on the lookout for ways you can help people. When you are focused on ways to support and help others, they will want to help and support you in return. This will support you to build mutually beneficial relationships with people, in a modality of fair exchange, where everyone wins.

Author's Bio: 

Andrew Horton is one of South Africa's top sales training experts. He will support, uplift and inspire sales professionals to explore the limits of their potential and awaken the sales giants, which resides within all of them. His sales training presentation is aimed at inspiring sales professionals, helping them to become re-energised and eager to achieve their sales targets. The sales tools and powerful tried and tested practical sales techniques, they will be introduced to during his presentation, will help any sales professional to immediately up their game and to become a real sales giant, within their markets. Visit my website at http://www.andrewhorton.co.za