The Non-Sales Sales Factor

Complete Story

06/04/2025

The Non-Sales Sales Factor

Source: Bill Farquharson, June 2, 2025

BillF

I had a fascinating conversation with a selling owner the other day. He was interested in growing his sales and wanted to talk to me about how I could help.

One of his first comments was, “I'm no salesperson. I'm not very good at it, anyway.” As he tried to keep talking, I cut him off with: “What are you talking about? I researched your company prior to this call. You have 38 five-star Google reviews. You must have earned them somehow.” I asked him if he knew why people buy from him and he said he did: “People tell us we return phone calls promptly whereas the competition can take up to a week. People like our response time, especially when it comes to getting a price. Our clients appreciate our curiosity and willingness to offer up different ideas…

… But none of that is sales and that's what I need help with.”

There are a few lessons here to cover in this short attention span sales tip. First, if you don't know why people buy from you, ask. This is incredibly important, completely free, and something you can emphasize in future sales conversations.

Second, don't be surprised if the answer they give you isn't complicated. In fact, it's just the opposite: it's incredibly simple things like returning phone calls and turning around quotes and offering up new ideas and showing appreciation and acting more like a friend than a vendor and 1000 other reasons you would not consider to be sales related.

But they absolutely are.

When most people think of sales or a sales process, they conjure up cold calling and closing techniques and they get anxious thinking about interrupting someone else's day with a sales call. Some of that is true, but don't overlook the obvious... the simple... the “non-sales” factors that can matter more because they show up less.

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