Selling In Your Teaching Room II

In an inspiring FaceBook post yesterday, Veronica - a teacher in Ireland - writes about the result of applying ideas I presented in my first English blog on Selling in Your Teaching Room. Successful selling (of AT ideas) requires total communication. But what is total communication?

I spent a long time learning what it was NOT: I thought to sell I needed incredible enthusiasm, multiple ideas  & approaches to follow, and a determination to never give up - my image was a dog with a bone. I had to hold on to my idea of selling come what may.

Now I understand, the opposite is true. It’s not about me, it’s about you.  To communicate is to listen. Really listen. And real listening ironically involves giving up my idea, making a space in my Self to receive the other person.

When you are busy worrying about how can sell this idea you are not present with your student (prospect). You can’t sell in that state. Well, you can - but that’s what gives selling it’s bad reputation. People feel it’s about what you want, not about what they want. They feel caught in your bubble and want to escape. That’s not selling, that’s a mild form of violence.

Selling is not about what you want, it is about you wanting for your student (prospect) what they want. It is about turning your Self into the advocate for what they want. For you student is full of conflicts, full of habits that drag them back into a past they want to escape. So you become the keeper of that wish - you hold it for them, you serve them. It takes immense courage and wisdon to accept this responsibility. You vaporize your own ego in the process - it is the very opposite of what most people think of as “selling.”

You don’t want to sell to a person who doesn’t want what you are offering. It’s unethical to do so. So step one is to ascertain if this person really does want/need your AT ideas? (That can be a long, detailed process - but I will write about that another time.) Basically, you need to figure out what they really want. How do you do that? By asking. By being utterly, totally curious, by getting them to talk to you about their life, their challenges, their needs. You take them in with every sensory faculty you have, and the information your receive from this is the substance of your ability to sell.

If you can accomplish this in your teaching room, you are ready to apply this technology to websites, flyers, social media etc. So - start now. Start today - and keep coming back here as I take you on journey over the next year to build your practise. Like Veronica, keep letting me know how it is going…