karina collis

The only skill needed in the 21st century

By Karina Collis, December 2019

I have many precious people in my life, who all work in different fields. For example, my partner is an investment banker. He spends his time travelling to meet potential clients discussing transactions they should consider. A very good friend of mine is a painter. She spends a lot of her time exhibiting her work and talking about the uniqueness of her works. Another good friend of mine leads an innovation department in an American car manufacturing company. His job is to select the best ideas and to persuade the strategy department that these ideas might shape the automobile sector over the next 20 years.

Have you noticed any similarity in what they do? I am sure you have!
They, in fact, all work in SALES.

They sell their skills and ideas, connecting with people, persuading and influencing them.

Look around, at yourself, at your colleagues and at your friends. How much time do we spend engaging with others, trying to persuade them and move them? And we all consider communicating to be essential to our professional success!

Need more examples?

Whatever we do, we are persuading our colleagues, clients, prospects and friends

Entrepreneurs sell ideas and their skills to investors. Politicians sell theirs plans to their voters; lobbyists sell to lawmakers. Lawyers sell to jurors. Members of a dating website sell their beauty to each other. And today's largest selling platform is Facebook, where we are selling ourselves, our lifestyle and thoughts to the world in exchange for likes and attention.

Someone working on his laptop, while also checking this phone

In the 21st century we all work in SALES!

In a services-led society, it is all about communicating with others. We all seek to influence, to persuade, and to change the behaviour of others. That is the essence of SALES.

The notion of selling has changed more in the last decade than it did over centuries.

The internet, together with the likes of Google and Amazon, removed the need for thousands of intermediaries and made the job of the door-to-door salesman/woman irrelevant. At the same time, selling has become social because we are selling everywhere, at internal meetings when pitching new ideas or at the annual off-site or even a dinner party introducing ourselves. In the digital era of the 21^st century, the skill of selling has become the most important soft skill of all .

A black-white picture of someone working on his laptop

In the digital era of the 21^st century, the skill of selling has become the most important soft skill of all.

Selling doesn't really have a stellar reputation. How many people do you know who dreamt of becoming a sales person? I know people who wanted to be a doctor, or an artist, or an astronaut, or even a DJ or a blogger, but never anyone who wanted to become a sales person! But mastering the act of selling is essential to become a well-known doctor, DJ or artist!

According to Gallup research, across a range of professions, we are devoting roughly 24 minutes of every hour to influencing others. Think of your activities over the last few weeks: there is a high chance that they will consist of answering emails, talking to others and attending meetings. If that's the case, you are working in sales whatever you do! And it is high time to think proactively about getting better in selling!

by Karina Collis | December 2019

In my Liinea coaching workshops, I work with founders and sales teams, helping them get to optimised sales processes that result in sales that close faster. If you are looking to make "elephants" that don't move a thing of the past, contact me at karina@liinea.com

Also we have useful articles on Builtinnyc.com and known website dev.to.

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