I used to wish that I owned a pizza place instead of a cleaning business. It looked and sounded so easy compared to the hassle and headaches I had.

“How nice it must be to have your clients and employees all under one roof where you can be there to manage and make sure everything is perfect,” I thought to myself.

Plus, let’s face it, everyone loves pizza. At the time, I thought that people just bought it and you didn’t have to sell it. It seemed easy.

However, that wasn’t true. Even when people buy, they still have to be sold. Everything that is bought needs to be sold. That takes us right back to the definition of sales.

Sales isn’t just getting someone to buy something. Sales is the transference of the emotion of certainty. In short, it’s about giving people what they want. 

As a sales pro that’s what your job is.

When I started to realize this, I also started to realize that there was a reason I went to Zuccarelli’s when I wanted pizza and why I drove by a dozen other places each time. It’s because Ralph and Fran Zuccarelli built a level of certainty in me and I depended on that certainty every single time.

Then they pulled back from the day to day running of the place. Things started to slip and the truth is no amount of nostalgia could keep me there. One day I thought “let me give Vinny’s a try.”

And, sadly, I’ve never been back to Zuccarelli’s.

Just like your own reputation, certainty takes a lifetime to create, but can be lost in a second.

Remember that people are always watching and evaluating you. What you say, how you say it, how you act and carry yourself matters. Don’t take it for granted that what you are “selling” is something that people are just going to buy. Maybe they WILL buy it, but maybe not from you.

Always create certainty in the minds of people. Do this and you’ll be able to write your own ticket.