Do you want to know how sales skills can help you find or improve your job ? Do you know how to use persuasion in your daily life to get what you want?
One of the skills you learn, practice and develop when working in international trade, especially if you have to sell products or services to people from different cultures, is persuasion.
And be careful, persuading is not a bad thing, you are simply helping a person to make a decision, which, of course, corresponds to your interests or objectives. Like all social or commercial skills, there are people who find it easier than others to learn and master it. Like everything in life, with practice and perseverance you can master this skill, and with it enhance your professional activity. In this article I give you the keys to achieve it.
Use of persuasion.
To persuade another person, the first thing you have to train is your empathy . Empathizing with someone is putting yourself in their place, taking into account their environment, their way of thinking and how they relate to others. Training empathy, which humans as social beings have in our DNA, requires effort and is acquired progressively. In fact, there are authors who consider it a type of intelligence, emotional intelligence. Elements such as non-verbal communication, active listening, self-control or self-esteem help develop this ability.
The more we practice it, the easier and faster we will empathize with different people. However, it is not always easy, since when you have little time to conduct a meeting or you do not know in detail the cultural or social context of your interlocutor, empathizing can be complicated. Still, do not worry, there are always tricks that help to achieve it, such as smiling from time to time, asking with interest, remembering and repeating the name of our interlocutor or looking into the eyes from time to time, help the other person feel more comfortable and more willing to empathize.
Once we empathize with the person we are meeting with, and this sometimes requires more landline number than one meeting, we must establish reasons why that person can accept what we propose, but always from his or her point of view or motivation, not from ours. I have seen many salespeople trying hard to convince the other person by following a sales argument or their own reasoning. And that does not work.
But although each person's way of thinking is unique, there are repeated or fairly similar patterns, and you have to rely on that when you have little time to persuade your interlocutor. To do this, try to think not as you would, but as a person with the profile of your interlocutor would, taking into account their age, sex, level of education, position in the company, family situation, country or culture... Thus, in negotiations or when presenting products to buyers from other countries, it has been very useful for me to know in advance the image that the inhabitants of that country generally have of Spain or of the Spanish.
Even so, it is always necessary to be careful and ask the other person with respect and interest, because it may be that this person does not fit into the pattern or preconceived ideas that we may have about that interlocutor. But in any case, there is an infallible check that allows us to know if we are going in the right direction and we are providing solutions, or at least something beneficial to the other person: Their attention . The more attentive a person is to what we are arguing, the clearer we will be that we will be able to convince that person.
Even so, there is one last barrier that we must overcome before convincing our interlocutor: their fears and objections . It is normal to be afraid (and mentally raise objections) to changing or making a decision, especially if it involves, for example, a significant financial outlay or trusting someone unknown. But this is something we must work on beforehand, thinking beforehand about the reasons why our interlocutor may have reservations about accepting our proposal and establishing valid reasons to convince and motivate them, and thus achieve our goal.
Persuasion in the business field
The more you practice it, the easier the whole process will become. Although you may not always achieve your goal, you will be close to achieving it. And in sales, getting close usually means certain success in the medium term.
However, there is an important element in persuasion: for me, persuasion is not the same as tricking. Because even if the trickster knows how to motivate another person to do something in his favor, he does so knowing that his proposal will not benefit the other person. And although this may be beneficial in the short term, in the long term it is totally harmful to the one who tricks.
Persuasion to find or improve your job
When it comes to finding a job and progressing in it, the first thing you should do is select those companies that, by name or profile, fit what you are really looking for and can motivate you. And it doesn't matter if they have job offers published or not. Then you should think about your offer, that is, who you are and what you can offer them. To do this, you should study the company, its history and its staff well and make a very detailed proposal of how you can help them . It is true that it is easier to send a CV, but it does not have the same effect. Later, you should contact them to get an interview. This is where persuasion comes into play for the first time. Dismantle one by one the arguments that block that interview. It may not be easy, but with patience, you can get it. Once you have that interview, you must apply persuasion so that your interlocutor forms a good impression of you. Then, follow up on that meeting to get them to give you a chance. There is no more. The more you practice it, the easier it will be for you. Good luck.