Effortless Selling?

It is surprising how many people offer a program to teach you "effortless selling" - as I found in a recent Google search. I am pretty easygoing when it comes to respecting others' styles of sales training, but I think this is where I draw a line in the sand.

It's misleading to tell someone that you can have little or no effort involved in your selling success. To me, that is analogous to telling an athlete they can be in shape effortlessly, or an overweight person that they can lose weight effortlessly. What's the bad rap on effort, anyway?

Certainly the WRONG efforts are bad. Good sales coaches and successful sales training can help set a biz owner on the right path certainly - and by the way, it does take some effort.

The intent, from some of the sites I looked at, is to help people with the concept that selling does not have to be hard - it is not difficult, and that the best selling comes from the heart. I understand the your own attitude and habits are the best indicators of your future success, but why mention effortless?

Coming from the heart requires effort. Attitude - especially if you are not immediately optimistic or if you are a small biz owner with some immediate, pressing, financial issues - you'll need a bit of effort to switch mental gears.

I think the most professional sellers take great effort to be professional, in high integrity, to be realistic yet enthusiastic - and high energy. People, this takes effort!

It is true, though, that when you get into the habit of writing thank you notes, or driving over to see a current customer each day, or to pick up the phone and contact ten or twenty new people each week - it begins to not feel like effort as much as duties or tasks.

To sell is to serve - that is for sure. Set up your environment to support yourself with this, rather than to put all of the large efforts of success on your own shoulders.

It is through your selling environment - your attitudes, thoughts, actions, and energy that you realize amazing successes.