A couple of nuggets from Mark Cuban’s recent post, “Need A Job?” After spending a couple of ‘graphs slagging on sports marketing majors, Cuban states “it’s more important to know how our customers’ businesses operate than how the sports business operates.” ::ears perk up::
He then proceeds to advise the following for anyone wanting to get into his business: “If you can sell, you can get a job – anywhere, anytime.”
At this point, I’m of course expecting a Alec Billy Stephen Fluffy (no, it was Alec, I get get ’em all confused) Baldwin–esque rant like the one from Glengarry Glen Ross. Instead, Cuban offers a litany of good sense and spot-on recommendations. Three pull quotes of note:
“Let me be clear that it’s not the person who can talk someone into anything. It’s not the hustler who is a smooth talker. The best salespeople are the ones who put themselves in their customer’s shoes and provide a solution that makes the customer happy.”
“The best salesperson is the one who takes immense satisfaction from the satisfaction their customer gets.”
“The best salesperson is the one the customer trusts and never has to question.”
In other words, invest the time to understand, converse, and connect – truthfully – with the customer through empathy, integrity, and understanding. Practice actual relationship-building.
Right on.
(hat tip: Trevor Cook)
I couldn’t agree more with Mark’s comments. The real genius in selling is the discovery of true customer problems. Many customers are not aware of their problems until an open discourse is ensued with someone who really understands how to get to the root.
If you throw out the garbage, the flies will go away!