"Sales, a Craft Built on the Art of Rhetoric"

In order to build your wealth as a CFP® you will need a certain level of sales professionalism. This is not something you can learn in a structured class but rather by interacting and learning from past challenges. Most people try to hide the fact they earn their living selling solutions. This is because the public perception of sales professionals is so poor. However, lawyers too share a poor public perception but they rarely hide from the title.

I once had a conversation with a great friend of mine who happens to be an attorney. (For people that know me, they probably are not sure what is more shocking: that I have close friends or that one happens to be an attorney!) In short, my friend believed that anyone can be a sales person.

I was pretty shocked by his assertion, and the bold confidence with which he made it. In fact, I was so shocked that this turned in to a fairly heated argument.

I asserted that a true sales professional is more versed in the art of rhetoric than most attorneys. Even the most skilled trial attorney is not in court everyday arguing, while a sales professional is always arguing. The art of argument is essential to success in persuasion.

My friend’s misconception of the profession was based on the assertion that most people have a certain level of salesmanship that they exercise throughout their lives. For example, interviewing for a job is “selling yourself” to a potential employer.

Likewise, speaking with a member of the opposite sex in hopes of obtaining a relationship or even trying to “convince” your wife not to drag you to Bed Bath and Beyond for the third straight week in a row to find that “perfect” window treatment are both examples of selling in one form or another.

The fact is, my friend assumed that just because the common man can talk his wife into eating at a sports bar instead of a four-star restaurant he can also sell a complicated software solution or even financial services. This is simply not the case.

Thanks,

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