Why I Am Never Ashamed To Sell

I believe in myself. If you are going to sell, you are going to have to believe in your ability to create value for the people who buy from you. I know that I will do whatever is necessary to deliver. If you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t have the confidence that you can create value, you won’t sell. Your lack of confidence that you will deliver will make you feel bad about selling.
I believe in what I sell. I could sell something that I don’t believe in, but I wouldn’t. If you are going to be successful in sales, you have to believe in what you sell. You have to believe that people will benefit from buying whatever it is you sell (as well as buying it from you). If you don’t believe in what you sell you will never feel good about selling.
Selling is, in fact, helping other people. Selling is the exchange of value. It is necessary to ask people for commitments. It’s even necessary to pitch people. But at its core, selling is helping other people to get a result that they could not get without your help, and without your product, your service, or your solution (or something like it). There is a reason that selling has become more consultative over time. That reason is that people and businesses need more help.
Businesses are designed to sell. There isn’t a business that exists that isn’t selling. Any time money is freely exchanged, it is exchanged for value. Even medical professionals trade value for money. If there is any shame in selling, then any person involved in any business endeavor should feel bad for being part of any organization that asks people to buy.
Selling levels the playing field. I watched my mother raise four children by herself, giving them all a life better than her own, because she learned to sell. She never wanted to sell. In fact, she was afraid to sell. But because she cared deeply about helping other people, she was great at winning businesses and building lifelong relationships. Single mom. High school education. Four kids under the age of seven. Sold her way out of it. Then built a business.

I’ve written about this idea a number of times here. But it was brought to my attention again how bad some people feel about selling when I received an email from a reader of my newsletter. He was unhappy that I pitched Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever program. For some reason, this young man believes that I’m obligated to share content without ever asking to capture value. For some reason, he thinks I am not permitted to make an ask. He could not be more wrong.

The words this young reader sent to me indicate that he has negative perceptions about sales, even though he is a salesperson for his company. I wrote back to him telling him that I have yet to begin pitching and that he should wait until I launch my book this fall. More still, wait until I release my membership training site.

I never feel bad about selling, because I know that I’m doing something for someone and with someone and not to someone. If this young reader never learns this, he will need to find a new line of work.