This is the most cut and dry argument for why sales is a morally good exercise. When you sell a product or service to a customer, it makes their life better, and benefits them. That is a morally good outcome. Absolutely no one can argue with that.
Internally we might have reservations about how much benefit a 4K camera or a brand-new smart phone, or a new Lego set can bring someone. The first thing you have to do is to understand, is that it is absolutely none of your business what someone else’s desired benefits are. If someone feels that a new tripod for their camera, or a new controller for their Xbox makes their life better, who are you to say otherwise?
Consumerism is often blamed for people’s unhappiness, depression and feeling a lack of fulfilment. Ever since the enormous rise of social media many people now blame their happy their lack of happiness, or an fulfilment on seeing other people’s lives displayed is perfect through Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
This is not an email about happiness, but I think the pursuit of happiness in general is pretty meaningless one. I think to measure the worth of your life by how happy you are has absolutely no bearing on what you’ve provided to mankind.
I believe the entire purpose of life is to benefit every other living creature on the planet and make the world a better place. However you want to define that. People who work for 40 hours straight rescuing war children from injuries wouldn’t call themselves “happy”.
People who spend their entire career trying to clean up the oceans, I don’t think, would call themselves happy. There are of course moments of happiness during that period, but what provides happiness is completely different for every single human being.
Happiness is probably derived from contributing to other people’s lives, and making their life better. If you believe that consumerism or buying stuff makes people unhappy, then you have a moral obligation to take their money and give them something worthwhile.
It’s extremely easy to have an indignant argument about selling, marketing, consumerism, without providing alternative.
All of the alternatives we explored that don’t rely on service, haven’t worked out. If you genuinely believe that people should spend less money on satellite TV, or holidays, fine.
But if you believe that strongly about it, you need to have an alternative and serve that audience. You need to get your alternative into the hands of those you wish to serve.
The messy or sticky feeling we have when it comes to making the sale, is rooted in a variety of reasons. Partly because of our beliefs around money, our experiences with salespeople.
But many people cringe at the idea of “making a sale” because they don’t want to be discovered as a fraud, an impostor or to be seen as taking someone’s money.
Instead of thinking about taking money from a customer, think about giving them a benefit. Maybe you’ve got productivity software that allows them to feel less stressed. And when they feel less stressed they sleep better. When they sleep better then more likely to engage with their family and community. Think about those benefits and how it makes someone’s life better.
Think about the consequences of that person having those benefits in their life. In exchange, they are going to pay you and rightfully so. They can give you money which you can then use to invest in your own business, staff, and your family.
Pushing past your fears of rejection or seen as “pushy”, requires you to understand the benefits that you are bringing to the customer. When the customers life is better, and you can see how their life is better, your care less about your own fears.
You don’t even have a choice as to whether you should or shouldn’t get someone that benefit. If you have the opportunity to make someone’s life better, you have a moral obligation to do so.
