One of my least favorite sales techniques is “Trojan Horse Selling,” where the salesperson schedules a sales call under some pretense other than “I want to talk about selling you something,” and then it becomes a sales call.  Integrity is our stock in trade, and if we lose that, we have nothing left.

This type of selling has its root in a lack of confidence in the value of what the salesperson is selling, and it doesn’t have to be that way.  We have all had that moment where we were in a networking situation and we realized that there was a sales opportunity; doing it wrong can trash a relationship, but doing it right can result in a sale and a very happy customer. Here’s how to turn networking into selling – the right way.