The apostle Paul demonstrates how I might love my customer as myself when he talks about the great anguish that he has to reach his people for Christ. There are three types of love that a salesperson must have to build a lasting career in sales. The verse below illustrates one of those qualities, which is loving our customer is our self.
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race
You Must Love Your Product
Figuratively, Paul’s “product” is Jesus Christ. There can be no question that Paul loved the Lord. Not only did he willingly give his life in service of Christ, but he lived his life that way as well. Paul endured agony after agony to reach people in the name of Christ and to build churches in those areas.
When we say that we love our product, that isn’t exactly the whole story. What we love is the way that our product solves a problem. For Paul, the problem was that the people worshiped idols instead of the living God. This caused the people to anguish in this life and the one beyond. Paul knew that he had the solution for that problem. It was a problem that plagued him for his entire life leading up to when he found Christ. Paul was passionate about solving this problem.
Your product solves a problem. The question I must ask you is, “Are you passionate about solving the problems your product solves?” Are you even 100% confident that your product or service does solve the problem? These are critical issues to examine when you are thinking of beginning the sales career or evaluating whether or not you are currently in the right place.
You Must Love Your Customer as Yourself
As the first quoted above illustrates, you must love the people you serve with the same passion that Paul loved his people to be a successful salesperson. To say that you will love them presupposes that you know they are. While it is challenging to know who will buy your product, a salesperson or entrepreneur should at least have a target customer. We call this a sales persona.
For instance, if you sell golf products and accessories, who is your customer? Who plays golf? On average, is your customer male or female? How and where does your customer consume. Which model of car does your customer drive? What other recreational activities does your customer enjoy? Why does your customer play golf? These are just some of the questions that you might ask to formulate your customer persona. Many successful salespeople and marketers tell me that they worked so hard on developing a customer persona that she became a real person. They know what she looks like and what she drives. They know everything about her and create all of the promotional materials to speak directly to her.
Another reason is essential to love your customer is that you become passionate about providing the solution you love. You become passionate about telling your customer how that solution solved your problem in your customers’ problems. You begin pulling for your customer to buy your product lest she buys something inferior from an inferior salesperson. In that case, her problem will persist, and you will have failed her.
You Must Love Your Yourself
The third element of becoming a successful salesperson is that you must love yourself. I’m not talking about the type of love that is unconditional. I’m talking about the kind of love that pushes you and drives you to become the best. You must love yourself precisely because you have put the work in to become preeminent in your field.
It is important that a salesperson can greet a customer, look him directly in the eye, and tell them that there is no other salesperson better suited to help them solve this problem. When I sold real estate, I spent hours studying school zones, county ten and twenty year plans, builders and subdivisions, historical architecture, and many more things that gave me confidence. I knew in my heart that there was not another Realtor in my market who could serve my customers better
Conclusion
To be a successful salesperson, I must love my product, my customer, and myself. Just saying that may not go deep enough. There is one final element to consider. In our modern vernacular, love is typically referred to as an emotion. It is a feeling that we have towards something or someone. That definition is not the scriptural definition. It is almost the opposite of the scriptural definition.
Scripturally, love is always a verb. It is always something done selflessly for someone or something else. I would encourage you to research the word in your copy of Scripture. Look at verses like, “for God so loved the world he gave his only son.” In this verse, God’s love is demonstrated by his giving. That will always be the case. In the elements listed above, love will always be about the actions you take, things that you give, not the feelings that you have to be a successful salesperson. I must love my product, my customer, and myself. Just saying that may not go deep enough. There is one final element to consider. In our modern vernacular, love is typically referred to as an emotion. It is a feeling that we have towards something or someone. That definition is not the scriptural definition. It is almost the opposite of the scriptural definition.
