the corner office
Getting to “no” Sales skills are management skills By Doug Phares
S
ales can get a bad rap, but there are fundamental elements of selling that can be useful at any level in an organization. In fact, I’d argue that many of the core tenets of sales are really just good management
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APRIL 2022
skills. And the higher up the corporate ladder you are, the more essential sales skills could be for you. A long time ago, when I was running a basic sales route, I came into it with virtually no sales-related skills. I had to learn fast,
and thankfully I had people around me who were generous enough to impart some much-needed sales wisdom upon me. But of all the things I learned, the one that I got the most mileage out of (and still use to this day)
was the importance of getting people to a “no.” Obviously, that’s counterintuitive, especially from a sales perspective. But the answer isn’t always a no — the important thing is to always direct someone toward a clear, final answer. editorandpublisher.com
