To think persuasion and sales are THE most important life skills?

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately and, honestly, persuasion might be the most important skill we need to succeed in life. It’s everywhere!

At work, you need to persuade your team to support your ideas or convince your boss you deserve a raise. If you’re running your own business, you’re constantly persuading customers to buy from you.

At home, it’s about getting the kids to eat their veggies or do their homework without a meltdown. Or convincing your partner on what to watch tonight or where to go on vacation. Being able to persuade makes everything smoother.

With friends, it’s rallying them for a night out or getting them to try something new. Plus, there’s all those everyday situations like haggling for a better deal on a car or getting a refund.

I'm gutted it’s taken me this long to realise how crucial this skill is - if you've mastered this skill I'd like some tips please 😊

Some of those examples are reasonable enough, but some sound like you're just determined to have your own way regardless of what other people want - the holidays and television and getting friends to try things they presumably aren't really interested in. Do these fabled powers of persuasion include knowing when to back off, take no for an answer, and accept that other people have different opinions and tastes? Your description sounds less persuasive than pushy, I'm afraid - whether you meant it to or not - and I find that sort of behaviour very off putting.

With friends, it’s rallying them for a night out or getting them to try something new

Seriously? What about friends who don't want to be bossed around and who are quite happy to decide how to spend their time and what new things to try?

I think a valuable skill to have and to teach children is the art of polite conversation even when debating different viewpoints, the value of listening and digesting information without resorting to personal attack or sulking. Being able to apologise when needed & showing respect for others.

Being able to resist sales tactics and not feel pressured to go along with what you don't want (at the cost of your time and money) seems like an even more important skill.

God no, this is a bit of a bleak outlook on personal relationships! My DH and I discuss how we want to spend our time and come up with a plan that suits everyone, I don't use my powers of persuasion to get what I want (ditto friends). Far more important skills are good communication, compromise, having boundaries and respecting other people's.

Sales skills are really really useful but not in a manipulative way, if you are taught "sales" skills properly you know how to really really listen and understand people and how to connect with and help people. They also give you confidence in delaing with unknown people and situations.
I used to teach Sales Skills and I have taught them to my DC since a very early age as I believe they are actually just life skills.
Unfortunately for a lot of people "Sales" is a dirty word and seen as scammy and most certainly not anything to be used positively.

Those are all skills that are useful in Sales though.

Those are actually NOT any tactics I used in my long and successful Sales Career.

That might be true - I don't work in sales so I wouldn't have a clue. I'm talking a ut negotiating personal relationships in a way that's non-manipulative and respectful of all parties. Bringing sales tactics into family life and friendships seems like a miserable and cynical way to go about things.

In life you often have to sell yourself. Maybe to a prospective partner or to an employer.

Sometimes your can sell yourself on your qualifications alone. But often you need more than that.

Yes, sales skills are useful and the ability to be patient and interact with groups and make them all pull in the right direction is a valuable skill.

Power of persuasion is code for my way or no way

I would say using your brain and think 10 times act once is much more effective and listen to what people are saying not what you think or want them to say

And don't be gullible and have eyes open in relationships

Personally I think being able to listen to others views is equally, if not more important.

You haven't persuaded me.

It sounds more like manipulation than persuasion that you're after tbh.

It's softer than "persuasion", but people skills definitely. Being likeable and living a life where people follow you, or do favours because they like you, old fashioned charm etc definitely get people places as much, if not more, than cold hard skills and ability. I'd like to believe you need to be decent enough at the job too, but you definitely don't need to be the best to do well, if you have these other skills.

I think the skills involved in being able to take personal responsibility and accountability for one’s actions, behaviours and opinions is even more important. As is the ability to think critically and understand and, more crucially, accept that life is not fair, and never ever will be. There will always be someone who has more than you and always someone who has less than you. Focusing on the negativity surrounding that only breeds bitterness and resentment, which only hurts yourself and the people around you
So, emotional intelligence, emotional resilience, self-awareness, reading critically, research skills, communication skills (which includes the skill of active listening), the skill of letting go, the skill of not blaming your woes on everything and everyone else, but instead reflecting on your own contribution to where you have ended up, personal responsibilities around health and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and so on.

They often go hand in hand tbf. If you know 'good sales' you can also see when you're being manipulated or getting the 'hard sell' a mile off.

Then you use your own 'sales' skills to sell them into leaving you the fuck alone

Maybe, but making complicated things simple is also a good skill.

Nah. Just sounds like manipulating people to get your own way. Controlling. Being caring & kind, empathetic and passionate but assertive and having boundaries are way more important qualities.

Sounds very manipulative and controlling. I'd distance myself from someone like this.

You don't need to persuade people to support your ideas if they're good. You shouldn't persuade your partner or friends to do what you want all the time, it should be a discussion and a joint decision.

Knowing you can't have everything your way all the time is much more important life skill.

True, I have been known to give a brief masterclass to bad salespeople I come across 😁

I’m not sure. I recently attended an industry event which didn’t require networking as such, and I was surprised by the lengths lots of people were going to ‘sell themselves’ at the expense of focusing on the task in hand. When asked to introduce themselves there were full (largely irrelevant) back stories, social media accounts offered up, instructions to ‘google me after’, and so on. In fact this part of the meeting took so long that the rest had to be postponed until a later date.

I would say negotiation is a more valuable skill - and fits better with the scenarios you mentioned.