Why Teachers are GREAT at Sales

Ah, hi, everybody. So happy to chat with you today. Today what we're going to talk about on this episode of the podcast is why teachers are great at sales. This is one of those things people are always like, really teachers are great salespeople that I find it like shocking that nobody seems to realize this.

 I think even the teachers don't notice this. But teachers, at least for me, for you, and as a teacher, teachers are the best pay salespeople out there, period, full stop. If you are a teacher, or you love a teacher, if you love a teacher, you might already know this. But if you are a teacher, you are a salesperson, and a freaking good one. Because whether you realize it or not what you've been doing all along is selling. Like we sell constantly. 

As humans, we sell ideas, we sell concepts, we sell content, we sell, I don't know being nice to each other and listening to children as teachers and adults, but mostly to children who don't want it. So today, what we're going to talk about is what exactly makes teachers great at sales and how being teacher being a teacher is really fabulous preparation. And maybe honestly, in my opinion, the literal best pet preparation for being a business owner, because if you can sell as I sold algebra to middle school kids, you could sell pretty much anything like ice cream to Eskimos, wherever. 

What we're going to talk about today is those things that make teachers great at sales, but also the thing that makes teachers think they're not. So there is one particular reason I find over and over and over again in my work with people who teach and who help people because as a business coach, my people are people, first people, their service, first people, their teachers, whether or not they identify as that they're artists, they're communicators, they're, you know, organizers, there are people that are in service, there is this one thing that every now and then there are not every now and then every single time comes up for people that is a struggle here. That is the sort of perceived conflict between teaching and selling. So we're gonna talk about that. But what we're going to talk about first are the reasons. 

Teachers are great at sales, even when they're not sure they want to be right. The first one, I have four, but there's probably 104. So I'm not going to, like exhaust you with this list. But if you are a teacher, here's the first thing to remember. What you are really, really good at is creating buy in. In the sales world. This is like a holy grail thing. You want people to feel emotionally invested in what you're doing. As a teacher, literally, there are entire books, there's entire classes. 

There's swaths of research, about creating student buying. Like it's about creating engagement, finding connection, helping kids connect to content, so that they choose to learn it. This is a holy grail of teaching, just like it is a huge thing in sales. Because in the sales world, if you can get someone to emotionally invest in what you're selling. Like, for me, it's coaching, if I can get people to, I'm not convinced them to, but if I can give people a reason to be emotionally invested in the idea that if they invest in themselves, things will change, then they're likely to buy, right? If people believe that they are capable, if they think that coaching is a tool that can work for them. If they invest in me, if they connect to me, they can buy from me, right? The same thing is true in teaching.

 My job as a teacher has always been to create buy in to create engagement to create want to have kids go like, Oh, what's the next step here, I want to figure out how to do this next thing. Or, I don't know if I love doing this, but I see how it's useful to me. Or, you know, I'm gonna get through this part. So I can move on and use it over here. Right? I've had plenty of kids over the years, say like, I'm not into the algebra, but I get that it's going to help me go do the thing I want to do in nursing in science and wherever they know, they need one to get the other. So that's fine. 

There's an engagement and a connection there. And then eventually it gets better. But like without the connection and the engagement, nobody buys anything, and they certainly don't learn. But here, you know, sales and learning getting kids to buy learning is the same. So that's one. The second reason teachers are really good at sales. is the absolute just sort of natural Your old teacher curiosity. Like we are nosy critters, teachers have questions. Teachers wonder why that kid does that thing that way? Or, you know, they teach it in this way. And then they think like, okay, 70% of my class got it this way, like, what does the other 30% mean? Or they think, you know, you're constantly refining, you're constantly like, did that go to plan? What would make it a little better? How would I do it next year? What's a better example? How would I adjust this? In sales? That's how you iterate a process. It's like, oh, you know, when I say it this way people connect. Or when I say it this way people get confused. In a classroom, I asked those questions. It's like, how come they were confused here? And not here? How come this group was confused? When I taught that and not the other? Like, what was the same? What was different? 

So that's, like, I can apply that those questions, the selling strategy, but also my like, curious teacher person who is curious about other human beings who's like, okay, so why did you, you know, I constantly look at even my own kids, and I'm like, they'll add something, or they'll subtract something, they'll do some sort of mathy thing. And I'll be like, Alright, how did you do that in your head? Because what I'm curious about every time is how they put together and pulled apart the numbers, because often it's different than the way I think about it, or my husband thinks about it. So we actually talk about those things, because they are stuck with me as a human mom, who's a dorky brain. 

But we ask the questions. And in sales, it's the same kind of curiosity. Great salespeople are curious humans. Teachers are curious humans, like we want to know what the people are up to. And why they did it that way. Like you run into another teacher, and they're like, well, but why did you do it that way? What did you use for this? And how did it work? And buppa, buppa, buppa buppa. Or you talk to the kids. This is the same in sales in sales. When you ask people the questions, the thing that happens to me all the time is like as sales without selling, right? Somebody I'll be able to connect with somebody that happened last week. And they'll say something like, oh, gosh, that's always so hard for me. 

You know, it's really what did she say last week? Oh, you know, like, I'm just a hot mess all the time. And I was like, well, but why do you think that? You know, like, what makes you think that about yourself? She was like, well, but I'm just not organized. And I'm constantly, like, sometimes I'm organized. And then sometimes I'm not. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, so now I have more questions like, What do you expect? How often do you expect to be organized? Like, what is your expectation of how organized you are? What percentage of the time and inevitably, the woman I was talking to you last week was like, ah, basically, I expect to be 100%, organized 100% of the time, and I was like, oh, and then you know, at the same moment, it's like, oh, wait, that's not a thing.

 With kids, we do that with adults, we do that that's my constant. Like, I always have at least one more nosy human question. And so the nosy human questions come out of teaching. They are what makes me good at sales. They are what makes me a good listener. Like, I am always listening to the answer, trying to think about like, oh, okay, so what information do I now have of all you need? Because then if I can say to somebody, like, hey, this resource would be super for you. Like, I recommended a book to a client today who said something, I was like, you know, what that makes me think of, here's something that might be useful for you. There's lots of ways to go here. And the questions you ask people are what leads you to sort of both connection and to inviting them to things in sales? So it's like, oh, you know, I asked you this question. You gave me this answer. 

What that makes me think of is I have this resource that might be useful for you, you know, do you want me to share a little more about it? And they could say yes or no, but it's like, Hey, I have this thing, then we're in a sale probably. Because we've connected we've been curious. Another thing about teachers, I think that is in the same vein that makes teachers great at sales is the want to help it this is a double edged sword, because sometimes the wants to help is what makes us burned out, right? The want to help us is more than our want to like, save ourselves. We have all been the teacher in a classroom that was working 20 billion hours extra trying to really well serve the kids in front of us and do all the things who also then like got sick because they never slept. I remember those days very well. Okay, but it's like, teachers calm with a really true service mindset. We are here for kids. We are here for learners. We are here for learning. If teaching was about the paycheck, no one would do it. 

So in business, that mindset that service orientation, that orientation towards people and help seeing them get what they need is magical. As long as it is not entirely without sort of reciprocation? Because if it's all give and no get that's not good, right? We talked about that on the last episode, you know, there's got to be a balance between giving and receiving, for business to work. But this orientation towards service allows teachers in the sales world to be like, how, how, what does the person in front of me actually need? And how can I help them? Rather than what do my numbers need? What do I require? What do I require, as a human as a business owner to make my month? Right? It is a very different orientation to be like, alright, well, how many people can I serve?

 So many of my clients come to me and they're like, You know what, I don't really care about the money, I want to help as many people as possible. And that's what we focus on. We focus on helping as many people as possible and the money comes, because the money is a natural result of that. If you're helping more people, you make more money, and not in a gross way, we're gonna get to that. The last reason and I think is very parallel to the third one, I don't know if they're different, or the same, I have them as different on my paper now that I'm reading them for the 10th time it's like is that you know, teachers care about the other person's outcome. 

So I guess they are a little different. Let me tell you why. teachers care about the other person's outcome, we care that the learner gets what they need, in sales. If you truly care about the person in front of you and get what they need, what's you're never going to be as salesy. Because you're never going to say to somebody, Hey, I have this resource for you, I think you should buy it, even though it doesn't fit. Like, that's bonkers. But when sales is about the sale first, when it is an ABC style sale, right? When it's about the numbers and the closing and the my business instead of the person in front of me. It's hard for teachers, because it's not about the other person's outcome. But for me, as a business owner, as a teacher, I always get to redirect to the other person's outcome, because that is really my center. It's like, if I make an offer to coach together, is this really what this person in front of me needs?

 What is the thing that's best going to serve them, one of the things that happens to me all the time, is people will say, Okay, I'm coming to talk about all of a console. And it'll be like, this is about one on one coaching. And halfway through the call, it's like, Listen, you know what, this isn't going to fit you the way you think it is. Here's what I think we should do. Instead, maybe it's group coaching, maybe it's a course maybe it's less often more often, whatever. And I ended up like building these custom packages for people because I want the person to get what they need. Versus just give me money.

 So like, I have a client that was doing group coaching for a long time. And what came to be is that I, I really came to believe that group coaching was fine for her. But what she really needed was weekly one on one, but in a smaller bite. So actually, what she pays for weekly one on one half hours is less than she did for group coaching. So like I technically lost money on the deal. But honestly, what she needed, it was a better service to her. And for me that matters more, that's always going to matter more. So as a salesperson that lets me go out into the sales world and feel really good about what I'm doing. Because I know that I'm never going to try to make a sale to someone that isn't going to want it. 

The teacher in me just can't bear it. That if it's not a fit, like I can't force you to do that. It's like forcing a kid to write about something they hate. Right. Now that I was writing teacher did a lot of that, because I'm not really maybe I'd have to do that. I don't know. But in math, it's like trying to get people. A kid who is really tends to be a visual learner to only do things in their head. Like, why do I care if they use paint on paper? Like, what's so bad about that? Why would I force them into a method that doesn't fit for them? When I could be perfectly happy with whatever method they got as long as they get where they're going? Right? That's what the end is about. It's much more about the other person's outcome and much less about mine. 

And that I think is a gift that teachers bring to the sales world. So this all comes down to you know, there's a million reasons teachers are great at sales. The hang up is this. There. As a teacher, I've had to work on this, I work with all of my teacher clients on this, because it is something that comes up immediately. There is a perceived mismatch. And I say perceived because it's in our heads, it's not real, between giving and helping. Oh no know, between giving and selling, right, like giving and helping, those are the same Holy Moly, between giving and selling. This perception is like, if I am giving, I can't be selling. And if I'm selling, I can't be giving. Right? As a teacher, I'm helping, because I love the kids. Not for the money. But I should be getting more money. 

But that's separate conversation. And we have this conflict, it feels like between being able to give freely, and being able to sell, but here's the thing, they are not in conflict, you may not be able to if you're a teacher, and you're listening to this, you're like, well, but they are, but they're not, you can effectively give as much help as you like, and sell. I know this is true, because I will make six figures as a business owner this year doing exactly that. I have multiple clients doing the same. I have people that make hundreds of 1000s of dollars in my coaching practice, who who absolutely give first every time. That is not a problem. 

And I have people that make much less money and happily, are here really for the service because they have smaller businesses and they want to be able to give, I have clients that run their businesses solely to be able to give. I mean, there's a whole range here of service, first kinds of things. But this conflict that teachers feel between being able to help people and selling isn't real. I would love you know, there's lots of reasons it's not. But it's mostly because we've been taught that if we're helping, we can't be selling that like one is if you're doing one, it's icky to do the other. And if you're selling you really can't do that for you can't help for free. 

Like those boundaries are make believe they really are. They're not real, actually selling and giving are the same. And they go together, you can give and give and give and kindness and kindness and kindness as long as you're able to receive. It all works out. I teach this to clients, if you want to learn how to do this, I will teach it to you. It's I outline and all kinds of things. There's podcast episodes. There's all kinds of things I do in my group all the time. But also like this is what we do and one on one coaching as we figure out how to do that. So that you don't have that conflict, you don't feel gross about selling. Teachers are great at sales, period. You are great at sales.

 If you show up, wanting to give and wanting to help and wanting to serve, it makes you better at sales not worse. If you have questions, reach out, you know, my email is Sara Torpey coaching.com. I have a website, it's Torpey coaching.com. If you're not in my Facebook group, come play with us you should. And if you're wanting to practice selling more and still be giving, I'm going to do a challenge at the end of October about making more offers. I've run it before it's amazing. It's going to be great. Come find it and sign up. It is $23 It's like the best $23 you'll ever spend quite honestly like easily worth 10 times that come play with us. And we'll we'll all be better together because more teachers in the sales world means a kinder business world that serves people better so let's do that.