Selling as an avenue to wealth creation

Selling, according to history is the world’s second oldest profession. It can easily bedescribed as persuading or inducing someone to purchase something. In other words selling connotes the transfer of goods or services usually in exchange for money.

The selling process usually involves at least two entities – the Seller, who has a product or service that he is willing to exchange at an acceptable price; and a buyer, who possesses the resources and intention to acquire what is on sale. The process is completedwhen an exchange occurs, with the seller getting paid and the buyer taking ownership of the product or service.

You may not realize it, but according to R.L Stevenson, “Everyone lives by selling something.” I find this to be true because at every point in life you are interacting with others. During these interactions you are either trying to persuade them to do ortry something or vice-versa. Even though the objective is not always monetary; convincing someone to accept your position or take action is selling, pure and simple.

If you think carefully you tried to sell something to someone yesterday, and will be doing the same with someone else today. I find that selling is something that comes naturally with us all because we are driven to always get what we want. In order to achieve our aims we must seek for the support of others, thus convincing them to act in our favour.

I have discovered that one of the secrets of the wealthy is that they are engaged in selling products, services or ideas for profit and gain. These financial successes are thoroughbred salesmen and women, convincing stakeholders and building an immense fortune along the way. There is no way they could have been able to achieve success without developing selling skills.

One needs to be able to sell effectively to convince investors to partner with you on a venture; bankers to give loans with favourable terms to finance projects; regulatory authorities for business friendly policies; employees for harmonious work relations; suppliers for timely delivery of raw materials and so on. Even final consumers have to be persuaded to sample offerings over alternatives. All these initiatives aid in building wealth.

The difference between the rich and the poor is in the use of selling as a tool to make wealth. The former have taken the time to master selling and use it at every opportunity for worthwhile ventures, while the latter do not realize that what they are engaged in when they tried to convince someone to take action is selling.

This ignorance has caused many not to develop their selling skills and maximize their earnings potential which eventually leads to wealth. We are not born salesmen, even though some may have the ability to persuade others. This skill needs to be honed so as to get the best results.I have even met many people who say they hate selling. You cannot afford to hate selling if you intend to be wealthy. Wealth creation involves persuading people which entails selling to them.

Wealth creation via selling can be approached from two perspectives:

Firstly, you can build wealth by taking up selling as a career. In today’s highly competitive world, most companies are on the lookout for good salespeople to employ. In order to attract and retain these employees organizations pay them higher salaries and commissions when they deliver outstanding sales performance. In fact salespeople are some of the best paid staff because they are in high demand, and their performance drives the growth of their employers. Selling is one of the highest paying careers in most economies.

One of the good things about being in sales is that many organizations see sales experience as a prerequisite for being given higher roles and responsibilities. Because selling is extremely vital to the continued existence of the organization many top managers are selected from Sales teams than any other roles. Thus sales people tend to climb faster into executive management.

Secondly, you can take up selling as an enterprise where you are involved in either wholesale or retail of products to end users or other players in the distribution channel. These business models are called wholesaling and retailing. They are important because people have need for many products. Now the manufacturers cannot sell to everyone directly and this gave rise to distribution channels made up of wholesalers, who sell to other players in the channel such as retailers; and retailers themselves who sell to the end users.

At each stage in the channel the manufacturer incentivizes the other players by giving them lower prices so they can make gains pushing the product out to the end users. Wholesalers usually buy in bulk and sell in smaller quantities to the retailers, who sell at a margin to the end users. The wholesalers convince more retailers to buy the product, while the retailers do the same to the end users. Each player thus makes wealth as the product moves from the manufacturer to the consumer.

Retailing business has taken a whole new shape in Nigeria with the advent of online selling and malls. It is a business that has low entry barriers with tremendous growth potential. In fact the richest family in the world, the Waltons hasfour members amongst the top fifty billionaires. The Waltons made their money from Walmart, the biggest retail store chain in the world started by Sam Walton.

You can even play in both terrains by taking up a sales career and starting an online retailing business, thus cutting your costs of having a physical location. The possibilities in selling are literally endless. I urge you to make time to develop your selling skills and put it to good use creating wealth for you.

Kenneth Doghudje