Summary

The article emphasizes the importance of selling skills for all professionals, including writers and speakers, to negotiate their worth and secure their desired rates.

Abstract

The article begins by acknowledging the resistance many people have towards selling themselves and their work, comparing it to prostitution. However, the author argues that selling is a fundamental human activity, as we are constantly selling ourselves in various aspects of life, such as getting a job, negotiating terms, and even raising children. The author then highlights the negative connotations associated with selling, such as slimy salespeople and pushy tactics, but stresses that learning to sell is essential for survival as a writer or speaker. The article provides tips on how to value one's work, express that value to clients, and negotiate terms effectively.

Opinions

Selling is a fundamental human activity that is necessary for survival in any profession.
The negative connotations associated with selling are often based on past experiences of pushy sales tactics and slimy salespeople.
Writers and speakers must learn to sell themselves and their work to secure their desired rates and avoid being undervalued.
It is important to have a solid understanding of one's skills and worth in the marketplace to effectively negotiate terms with clients.
Developing a unique lane or niche for oneself can set one apart from the competition and increase one's value in the marketplace.
"Exposure" is not a sufficient payment for one's work, and it is important to communicate one's worth to clients.
Selling is not about forcing unwanted products or services on people, but rather about finding a need and filling it.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash

We Are All Salespeople

If you won’t sell, the mail room is hiring

The other day I read this smart piece from Sharon Hurley Hall about how to better negotiate your rates as a writer:

Beyond Sticker Shock

Why writers should demand their worth and how to do it

medium.com

What the article underscored for me, as a longtime sales trainer, is the resistance so many of us have to the insulting notion of having to peddle our wares. Negotiate terms.

Sell, in other words, as though the very idea of selling was akin to prostitution.

Well, while that is among the oldest professions, selling is even older.

While I can understand the natural resistance to being in the same class as Robin Williams' used car salesman in Cadillac Man:

I would argue that rarely a day passes when we aren’t selling something to someone.

You and I can totally forget that we are effectively selling ourselves all time. To get laid, to get favors, to get kissed, to get married, to get a job, to negotiate terms. There is no time that we aren’t selling, especially if we have kids. Do your teeth, do the dishes, do the chores.

To be human is to be selling, convincing and negotiating.

Yet in all the years I’ve been an entrepreneur, and still am, I continue to run into folks for whom the very idea of having to prove their worth, sell themselves to a prospective client is abhorrent.

You’re not going to be in business very long if you’re not willing to get your hands dirty.

Selling carries the unfortunate baggage of folks’ forcing products and services upon us that we don’t want.

Likely that’s happened to us.

The great Mamet play Glen Garry Glen Ross depicts the worst of slimy real estate sales people at work. If you’ve been on the receiving end, and likely we all have, then selling as a profession is tainted in our minds.

Yet, we cannot survive as writers without learning to sell.

Sharon’s piece underscores the fact that first you and I have to have a solid idea of our skills and what we’re worth on the marketplace. One of the hardest lessons of being an independent is finding out how little others think of your fine work. That’s a shocker. They might be right about the quality, too, which is even worse.

Feedback is a gift, if we’re brave enough to use it to improve.

Or, they might be wrong. It’s our job to demonstrate our quality. We have to prove ourselves. Don’t want to have to do that?

Call centers are hiring. So are mail rooms. Jobs with no risk, and little reward, but you don’t get your nose broken by rejection.

Far greater rewards go to those who do the hard work of developing their skills, creating a product people need and want and want to pay for. Better, they develop a unique lane for themselves, which sets them aside from the competition.

Hall does a terrific job of laying out how she values her work and expresses that value to a client. As a speaker, I have been told ad nauseum that I should be grateful for the “exposure.” Speak for free, in other words.

Kindly, after nearly forty years in the business, I am not in the market for “exposure.” The client just communicated their lack of budget and sophistication. End of conversation. Same with writing. Part of developing a good business is learning which clients to fire, and which to put a fire underneath because they love your work.

That takes sales. You need to know the market, your competition, and how you stack up. Overprice yourself and you will starve. Underprice yourself and you will starve.

Don’t learn to sell because you consider it beneath you, and you will starve.

Many a speaker has sniffed that they “don’t do sales.” That’s for other people. They are talent. Talent doesn’t have to sell.

I beg to differ.

They were out of business in a few months. The BEST speakers sell their butts off. It would be fair to say that in my speaking business I averaged between 80–90% of my time marketing and selling my services, and about 5% of my time on stage. That’s not at all uncommon.

Speakers would all love to find the Holy Grail: a marketing person who does all their selling for them. Good luck. I tried that too, and found that nobody could sell my services better than I could. The top speakers making seven figures have marketing and sales staff. They can afford it. Just starting out as speakers and writers, you and I don’t make the kind of income to hire a top-notch marketer.

Writers would love that, too, but it’s unrealistic.

Selling is little more than finding a need and filling it. That’s not forcing unwanted food down someone’s throat. If you’ve done the work to identify folks who need you, and you are the right fit, it’s nowhere near as hard to get the business. But you have to do that work up front.

Sharon’s article is great reading for anyone needing a primer on priming yourself to get paid for writing work. It also applies to a lot of other skills.

Bottom line: you don’t sell, you don’t work. Selling is life, and we all do it all the time. Learning to get paid for your writing, speaking, any other skill is simply, well, living life.