> it doesn’t matter what you’re selling—it matters how you make people feel. If you make them feel good, they’ll say yes. If you don’t, you could be selling a pill that reverses male-pattern baldness and makes you lose weight without exercise, and they’ll still turn you down flat.
The old adage is as true as ever. People do not remember what you did or what you said. People remember how you made them feel.
Later on in the article the author also says that it's luck.
Of course you need to be better than your colleagues to be the best, but also the environment you're working in should help.
If there is demand for the product you're selling, and you can actually offer them an interesting deal, then you have a lot more chance of succeeding in your elite sales person life.
If there's little demand, and the industry has changed and people are more aware, the same old tactics and products are not gonna work anymore. Because these customers also get called by other new sales people with new exciting products and new ways of persuasion.
It's not just about how you make people feel, it's also about the product, company, and market situation, obviously.
The company the author worked for went bankrupt eventually. So I imagine no sales people were doing great at the end.
The shift to luck part of it could be expanded on more I think, its emblematic of many believing they are hot shit at their new job or hobby. You have the right idea: the product matters and the market and shift underneath the best salespeople. But salespeople like this are also like chameleons who don't really care about the product in the first place, they go on to hock something else that's hot.
It also reminds me of every would-be day trader that posts to /r/wallstreetbets. Many will hit a hot streak after they figure out how the options market works, they start getting fancy and making bigger bets and dreaming about quitting their day job. Suddenly the luck runs out and their accounts hit zero. They thought they had the talent and wisdom to conquer the market, but they were just lucky at the casino for a little while.
That line made me stop and think. At first I thought it was an exaggeration, but then I realized it was exactly true - however, I don't think the author understands it fully.
If someone offered to sell me that pill, I wouldn't say, "Ah, but you were kind of brusque, I don't think I'll buy it." I would say (well, think, actually), "I don't think I trust you that it's this easy and safe, so I won't buy it."
The key is trust. The insight the author missed is that we more easily trust people who make us feel good, among other things (attraction, social standing, etc.).
> Shelly in Wichita is not going to buy what you’re selling, no matter how good the deal is, if she can clearly hear in your voice how much you hate your job and, by extension, her.
I think this again misses the point. Shelly doesn't necessarily think you hate her, but she has no reason to trust you. If your product was good, and people were better off for buying it, you probably wouldn't hate selling it so much.
