The essence of sales is exchange.

Successful bosses are often those who transitioned from top-tier sales roles.

Clients never truly want to win—they want the feeling of winning.

As an agent for a particular brand, the pricing is essentially fixed, so it's a set amount per square meter. When a client shows interest, you simply provide a quote. In a ten-kilometer radius, if only two agents represent this brand, those two will compete against each other. With free doorstep delivery guaranteed, whichever is cheaper wins the customer.

What can ordinary salespeople do?

They can only either negotiate a lower price or call the boss to see if more discount room exists. A salesperson who can only do this level of work is interchangeable—someone like them makes no real difference, and anyone can engage in a price war with neighboring competitors.

Here's a great example:

A salesperson offered 15 square meters of tiles for free without reducing the unit price. The 15 free square meters consisted of cut pieces intended for behind cabinets. What she did truly embodied exchanging zero of her own value to gain a hundred of the other party’s value: for her, those offcuts were worth zero, but to the customer they were worth a hundred.

Her minor adjustment to the decoration plan cost the customer nothing, while keeping the tile prices unchanged secured a hundred percent of her own利益.

Both sides felt they had come out ahead.

In the first round of interaction, she immediately offered 15 free square meters. The client was pleasantly surprised, almost embarrassed—as though they had taken advantage of her and now owed her a favor.

This allowed the client to win face.

Ultimately, the client simply wanted lower renovation costs, which she delivered—this let the client win substance.

The client gained both face and substance.

What about her?

She won the order, maintained full pricing, and even got the client to dispose of scrap tiles that would otherwise have been waste she needed to discard.

The client praised her enthusiastically to everyone, bringing in a steady stream of new customers. She had both face and substance.

This was the most successful exchange.

Dual victory: both parties felt they had won twice.