Skip to main content

Why I Love To Watch "Shark Tank"

Anyone who has read my book knows we're all in sales in some form or fashion. And the first rule of sales is that before we sell our product or service we have to sell ourselves.

When you see someone on "Shark Tank" pitching the investors, the successful entrepreneurs are the ones who sell themselves first. Before the sharks make a offer they usually say something like, "I like you guys!" or "You girls have a great work ethic!" The lesson is that you can have a great idea or a million dollar product, but it doesn't matter if people don't think they can work with you.

The one exception is Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary. This shark claims to only look at the bottom line and is a "disciplined investor". His brutally honest remarks, like telling someone with a business idea that it's "poo poo on a stick" or that their competitors will "squash you like the cockroach that you are".  O'Leary's blunt talk and attitude usually result in his offers being spurned. No doubt that the people pitching have preconceived notions of having him as an investor.


And as the inventors and business hopefuls are trying to sell themselves, the sharks have to sell themselves as well. There are occasions when sharks bid against each other when an investment looks good, so they sincerely give a rundown of their own accomplishments. "You know I'm the queen of QVC," says Lori Greiner as she tries to out deal her fellow sharks.

The show is one big sales job and you can take away all kinds of valuable lessons from it. You can learn how to present your product, how to react to criticism, having the information you need to answer questions and many more techniques which are easily transferable to the sales profession. The investors are being "sold" a piece of someone's company, but the person behind the company is where the sale begins.


Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the "You're Going To Be Great At This!" Podcast

I was pretty surprised when I saw that my last blog post was several months ago. Time really does fly when you're having fun, or in my case, just having a busy workload. In the last few months I've been on the road for an approximate total of 9 weeks. Needless to say I get less than motivated to work in a hotel room after selling insurance for 8 hours, so blogging isn't on my "to do" list. While driving in my car during these trips I try to make my time productive my listening to podcasts on business and marketing. I'm not sure if someone was trying to tell me something but over the course of a week or so, I heard 4 episodes on how starting a podcast can help boost your business. After mulling this over and considering my options, I decided to take the plunge and start one myself. I've had a YouTube channel for a while which is fine, but I wanted to do something a little different. So I decided to start the "You're Going To Be Great At This!"...

Changing My Scheduling Calendar For 2025

This blog usually has actionable sales tips and advice to help you succeed in your business. This time, I wanted to take a look at another part of your business, which is scheduling appointments or sales calls or whatever you need to schedule.  Having a scheduling calendar that your prospects can make your job so much easier. Instead of calling back and forth to pin a time to meet down, you can let your prospect/client pick their own time. According to FinancesOnline.com, online scheduling can lead to 26% more customers, so sharing your calendar is a real no-brainer. I have a Google calendar that I use to book appointments, but I have also been using Calendly and sharing it on my website and social media. The two calendars are supposed to sync up to avoid double bookings, but recently I discovered an issue.  I had blocked out a couple of days on my Google calendar for a business conference, but Calendly was still showing those days as available. After trying to find a way to f...

Your Sales Call Autopsy

A friend of mine recently did some contract work for a company. The project took several weeks and the work was much more detailed than my friend anticipated. Not only was the work itself difficult, but so were the other people who he had to deal with while completing the designs and other specifications.  When he was done he did something very important. He waited a few days and then took an objective look at the entire process, where he discovered what worked well, what didn't work well and the lessons he learned in the process. He even posted all of this information in a "bullet point" style on social media. With that information, his future projects will be somewhat easier if he runs into the same issues. Many people in sales and marketing fail to do this. If something works well, they just move on to the next deal. But if they hit a snag and fail to get the sale, they complain about something, usually the client or the working conditions, without having an honest ass...