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Clever advertising, attractive packaging, implied quality and value, and a perceived need for an item are all effective sales tools, and the same can be said for a sales professional. There is a dynamic that can be achieved between a seller and a buyer that is generally the result of rapport being established between the two. The consumer can benefit greatly from the knowledgeable sales persons ability to explain both function and form in regard to a particular product or service. Virtually every portion of a sales presentation is structured, and often delivered in the same manner time after time, with little in the way deviation. While this might not be achieved in strict verbatim fashion, the overall structure doesn't vary all that much. It is up to the consumer to decide whether or not they want to buy something from the person doing the selling, it is up to the sales person to outline the features and functions of the product in question.

If salesmen were the underlying reason why purchases are made, all items would have sales associates in close proximity to them. It is in the realm of complex devices and services that the knowledge possessed by salesmen becomes invaluable. Having access to people who can fill the voids of understanding in regard to something that requires research and increased understanding is certainly a benefit that many people enjoy, and many take for granted. A salesman should be able to tell a consumer how something works, though ultimately, the average consumer just wants to know that it does.

The sheer numbers reflected in sales figures, the averages of rejection and affirmative response, all elude to the fact that it is the consumer who sells themselves on a given purchase. This is true both in regard to the products and services, as well as those who represent the providers of them. Sales would be a sure thing if a capable salesman was responsible for the success of a presentation. Sales would be a lost cause if an incapable salesman was responsible for the success of the same presentation. Good salesmen are rejected, and horrible salesmen occasionally make sales, in spite of their affluence in terms of ability, or the lack thereof respectively.

If a person really wants to buy something, they will not be deterred. If that same person adamantly opposes the purchase of something, they cannot be convinced to buy. As a person who has more than a few years of experience in sales, I have experienced the vicissitudes both good and bad. I have heard "no" more times than a band geek in search of a prom date. I have heard "yes" just enough times to know that a person can make a decent living by presenting products and services to consumers on a regular basis. The reason why the efforts of salesmen must be duplicated is because no scenario can be duplicated with precision. The salesman might always be the same, but the consumer will never be the same from one to the next.

In summation, the only consistency to be found in the world of salesmanship is in terms of the efforts offered by the sales professionals. It is through that consistency that sales are made, not through the regular intervals of guaranteed success. Anyone who has worked in the sales industry knows that the law of averages represents a reality that cannot be discounted. If the success or failure of any given attempt to sell something was strictly in the hands of the seller, there would only be two kinds of salesmen, complete failures, or absolute successes, and that is obviously not the case.

Learn more about this author, Xavier Grey.
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