I’m not in sales, but …

Everything is sales.

When you’re telling your boss what you think should be done, you’re selling. When you’re explaining to your spouse what big-ticket item you want to buy, you’re selling. And when you’re talking to a client and negotiating new features, you’re selling.

So, don’t you want to be good at it? I do, and this article is good enough and a big enough help that I wanted to remember it by posting the key points here:

8 Sales Questions You Can’t Live (and Sell) Without!

1. The Who Question
   Who’s deciding?

2. The When Question
   When are you deciding?

3. The Scenario Question
   Find the needs

4. The Net Impact Question
   Understand the impact of the needs

5. The Explain Question
   Get input

6. The Make Sense Question
   Get feedback

7. The Removal Question
   Trial close

8. The Try Question
   Closing

There’s a lot here, and some of it I’m not sure how I’ll use. But I love (and use) the “make sense” question a lot, especially since I’m often working with people whose native language is not English. And many of the others are great tips.

If you have five minutes, I highly recommend checking out the entire article.

Get yer textbooks here

In the extremely unlikely event that you or anyone you know might be looking for an educational technology textbook, I’m selling one.

Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications is yours, all yours, for a steal: $10.

Of course, I have almost zero eBay history, so you’d kinda have to trust me …