Why children make the best sales people

• Successful sales need more than the usual dose of passion and excitement. It needs a fresh spirit and an extremely positive outlook.
• Create rapport and bond not just out of business but out of the fact that you are both human.
• Simplicity is not proof that you don’t know. It shows that you know but care enough to make others know as well. A mantra all sales persons should adopt.
• The effect of your pitch may wane over time and the sooner you get the buyer to commit the more effective your sale may be.
• Sales people should find a higher calling beyond their commissions and other material benefits that they get after the sale. They should be solution providers and dealers in affection; not extortion.

“If you think that there aren’t worse things than death, wait till you are alone in a room with an insurance sales agent.” Anonymous

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Whenever I tell people that I work in the insurance industry, say at a dinner event, I see their faces turn red as blood rushes in.

This is because over time the industry has been represented by passionate sales people who go out of their way to prove to prospective clients why a life insurance cover is as important to them as life itself — which is probably true.

However, the way the message is drummed into the prospective clients’ ears leaves many feeling coerced, as if their personal space has been invaded.

I therefore see the relief on my soon to be acquaintance’s face when I add that I am in insurance training and not selling.

Which is not exactly true because we are all sales people; whether we work in sales or not. But the point is, while many of us love to buy, none of us really likes to be sold to.

Buying seems voluntary and self-motivated. Being sold to sounds a bit pushy and seems based on deceit and trickery.

Which begs the question, how do we sell in such a manner that the buyer feels they are buying rather than being sold to?

The answer lies in my eight year old nephew who taught me much of what I have come to know about sales; that children make the best sales people. Here is why.

“Hallo,” I answered my phone on its second ring only to hear a younger than I anticipated voice on the other end. “It’s Gabriel,” he said in a ticklish excited voice that I automatically recognised to be my eight-year-old nephew’s.

“I am using dad’s phone,’’ he continued. “Oh how are you?’’ I replied before we exchanged pleasantries for a while.

“By the way, the reason I am calling is because our class will be participating in the Mater Heart Run next Saturday. I have a card from school to seek contributions which will assist other boys and girls who have sick hearts to get well and run just like us. I am calling to request that you contribute for me. Will you?”

Will I? Why not! In my opinion, this sales pitch had all the ingredients of success ingrained therein. Let me explain.

Children are appealingly fresh and new at sales. Most children are doing sales for the first time and have no idea what failure looks like.
They are positively motivated and most of all extremely excited. So excited was Gabriel that the first thing he did when he got home was call me using his father’s phone seeking to make a sales pitch.