2023-05-29
27 分钟Selling products, ideas or even yourself is a task that can feel daunting, or maybe even a little uncouth for some people. But Colin Coggins, author and adjunct professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, believes that anyone can learn the skills needed to sell anything – and that you already have more “sales” experience than you think. Colin shares why he believes that the best salespeople defy the expectations of what society thinks of as a successful salesperson, how self-awareness can help you achieve your goals and why learning the art of selling could teach you a lot about life in general. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Ted audio collective.
You'Re listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
When I was in elementary school, my friend Ben and I used to hold these joint sidewalk sales where we'd sell all our old books and toys in between our apartment buildings on the street.
And it was our New York City version of a garage sale.
So we were trying to make a little bit of money.
Sometimes we'd have lemonade, but mostly we were selling used books and toys.
And about five minutes into any of these sales, a pattern would become very, very, very clear.
Ben was a master haggler and salesperson.
Despite being at most, ten years old, Ben could consistently manage to convince adults to pay a higher price or to buy an extra toy for their kid that maybe they weren't even considering me.
On the other hand, I was not a master haggler.
I was constantly throwing in extra books for free.
I was trying to convince them to take the books even when they didn't want it.
You like the Ramona books?
Oh, you're gonna love this series.
Please, you gotta try it.
Look, I'm going to give it to you for free.
Try it out.
I insist.
I had a lot of happy customers, and I also had a disconcertingly light money jar.