6.30.22 Did you Know that We are All Selling, All the Time?
Dear Students,
Today’s insight (see box above) conveys a message that many, if not most, of you who aspire to senior leadership roles within “exciting” types of companies may not realize, from Twitter.
Throughout our professional careers, we are always “selling.” We are striving to influence our bosses to try a new approach to solving a problem. We are seeking to persuade our colleagues to embark on a fun, yet challenging and risky new project. As we move up, we are presenting business cases for more headcount (employees) and financial resources (money to invest in technology, learning and development, employee benefits, etc.).
As professionals, selling is not something we ever “get away from,” because as we “ascend the corporate ladder,” we are collaborating and competing for resources with an increasing number of equally-bright, equally-passionate and equally well-researched colleagues who have also been honing their selling skills.
Daniel Pink drives home this point in his book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, as well.
Thus, as an ambitious international student, it’s worth considering how to build such “sales-related” skills early on in your career. By working with our coaches, for example, you can practice compensation negotiations, be coached on learning how to devise and express a point of view on a commercial awareness issue or be supported in crafting a strategy for convincing a long-time employee to think differently about a standard process.
We hope that you realize that the power skills you may associate with “selling” – communication, listening, influence, persuasion, negotiation, etc. – become all the more critical as you assume greater leadership roles – regardless of any lofty job titles or “sexy” work environments. Developing such abilities, you will soon find, is key to success in achieving your goals!