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Successful businesses build successful careers

19/11/2014

Blenheim music retailer Ken Ham believes everyone is a salesperson. He talks to ServiceIQ about the value of sales skills and training.


“I seriously believe there are only two things we have to sell in this world. We have ourselves and our service. A person who can sell themselves and their service can probably sell anything. I believe that all of us on this earth are salespeople, end of story. I’ll debate that with anybody. Some of the best salespeople on this earth are clergy, school teachers, nursing staff – everybody is a salesman and your success in life is determined greatly by your ability to sell. If you can’t sell you can’t succeed, end of story.

“I’m a big boy and I’m quite capable of telling people I’m blind. That doesn’t embarrass me. One of the challenges I face in the shop here is that I try very hard not to appear blind so I sometimes unwittingly place my clients in what they see as an embarrassing situation. What I have to do is relax them in that role. That’s why I think people have to take ownership of their issues and know how to talk about them. I can’t see, end of story, and I think I’m a better person because of it. I’m not ashamed of it. We’re none of us perfect.

“I’m not blinded by somebody’s physical appearance and sometimes it’s an advantage to assess somebody without knowing what they look like. I can detect body language and I know if they’re looking at the floor and shuffling their feet. You can tell all that from somebody’s speech and demeanour.  My last three prospective employees I spoke to believing they were in their twenties and then found out they were in fact only 16. All three of them tricked me in that regard, they were all confident, well-spoken and mature beyond their years.

ken ham musicworks

 “It’s important that anybody I employ is able to talk to people from all social backgrounds, from all ethnic backgrounds, from all age groups. Blenheim has changed dramatically in the last few years and the cultural and ethnic changes mean our staff have to be adept in talking to all manner of people from all manner of backgrounds. That hasn’t always been the case in provincial New Zealand but it is now.

“I prefer to recruit young people from high school and some of my best successes have been from their own approaches to the store. I personally take a large responsibility for their training but when looking for trainers I go straight back to where we’ve had success before.  Obviously I like good results. I want them to be effective and successful salespeople immediately. I think gearing the course to the intellect of the person taking it is incredibly important. It’s not a one size fits all.”


ServiceIQ offers retail training at all levels from retail assistants to managers. Options include on-job training, linking to the business' own training programme and recognising existing skills. Online training is also available.