Say Hello to The Art of Selling

A Personal Introduction and My First Substack "Sellenthal" Column

Let’s Get To Know One Another

I am Ira Ellenthal and this is my introduction to a new journey in my lengthy and fruitful career, starting a how-to column on the art of selling two times a month and hoping you will become a regular reader.

Importantly, the "you" I am addressing extends well beyond those who sell for a living. Just about everyone these days is involved in the art of selling or PERSUADING someone to do something. Perhaps it is CONVINCING a neighbor to trim or cut down a tree that is obscuring your view; or SELLING your boss on giving you a raise; or WINNING OVER a school board member who had disagreed with one of your recommendations. My column can help make everyone better at it.

If I am fortunate enough to gain your attention, it will not be because of the column's mildly clever title, SELLENTHAL, achieved by adding an "S" to my last name. Rather, it will be because, like getting good at writing, I added selling to my repertoire some 55 years ago and got good at it. Good enough to write two books on the subject (a third will be published later this year); good enough to help me become the publisher of several business magazines, plus such consumer titles as U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic and Fast Company, as well as the associate publisher of The New York Daily News. I have hired and/or trained hundreds of salespeople, my favorites being women because I think they are better at selling than men.

As for my writing style, my fingers are crossed that you will like it. Frankly, I believe I can tell a story in writing better than 99 percent of other people because I have been doing it for seven decades.

During a lot of that time, my stories have been read and improved by professional editors whose criticisms and suggestions have helped make me better when I am working alone. It would be hard to pinpoint precisely when I was comfortable calling myself a good writer, but it took a long time. When it finally happened, I knew for sure that whenever I sat down at my typewriter, word processor and, finally, an actual computer, the end product was going to turn out well, something I would deem professional. And I knew I could improve it further by reading it again and again, tightening the narrative and changing a word or two or three here and there. Clearly, I had come a long way from my previous life when I had to chisel my words into stone.

A few final notes: Many of those who have read my books, columns and feature articles for so many years have applauded them for their educational content and, happily, for their entertainment value as well, pointing especially to their laughter-evoking, real life anecdotes, often about well-known personalities. As a seller, I have always coveted my customers and I feel the same about my readers, so I hope you will interact with me and my column, and we can become good friends. Many thanks, Ira

Sellenthal #1 - Don’t Become Part of the Forgotten Tribe

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we salespeople are supposed to be sellers, not tellers. We're supposed to get objections on the table so we can discuss them and try to overcome them.

Instead, salespeople concern themselves with making inconclusive presentations – anything to avert rejection and keep the sales process alive. By and large, salespeople - and their presentations - are all too often forgotten before the office door closes behind them.

I hate to say it, but most salespeople don't play to win; they play not to lose.

A lot of salespeople can make decent presentations. Big deal. That's only one part of our job, certainly not the biggest.

So, what exactly is our job?

Selling is our job. And selling is about identifying needs - not ours, our prospect's - and trying to fill those needs with creative solutions.

That, by the way, is as good a definition of selling as you're going to get - here or anywhere else.

Along the same lines, let's go a step further. I've been saying the following for so long that I've convinced myself that I coined it: our job as a seller is to be a solution in search of a problem.

Read it again!

We identify a prospect's problems and, with our product or our service in mind, we come up with suggested solutions.

The only way to get the prospect to identify his problems and objectives is by asking good questions that elicit information that will help us to help him.

I'm not saying that simply making a presentation can't work. It can, but it's like throwing a barrel of you-know-what against the wall and hoping that some of it sticks. It's tantamount to closing your eyes, swinging a bat and hoping the ball hits it.

I don't like the odds one darn bit.