Perhaps the most difficult aspect of sales is also the most rewarding: working with people. A gracious customer can not only vindicate your choice of profession, but raise your esteem of humanity. On the flip side, as New York Times reporter Stephanie Rosenbloom put it recently, “Certain mortals have the power to sink hearts and sour moods with lightning speed.”

This presents a unique challenge, because to be an effective salesperson you’ve got to have a keen human intuition—a sensitivity to others—but you’ve also got to have the epidermis of an elephant . If it isn’t, you’ll either end up getting trampled or losing the sale after you lose your cool. However, if your skin gets too callused, you’ll become, well, callous.

So how does one be a responsive saleperson without becoming vulnerable to the difficult people of the world? According to Rosenbloom’s recent article “Help! I’m Surrounded by Jerks", the answer may come from within: “[Psychologists] say people exhibit difficult behavior because they have a need that is not being met. Understanding that need — a colleague may be snappish, for instance, because his personal life is in turmoil — helps take the sting out of his or her actions, they say.”

In essence, the key to being sensitive without making yourself vulnerable to the jerks of the world is to be more sensitive, more empathetic. “Rather than seeing the office curmudgeon or the post office nitpicker [or ornery customer] as the sum of their most wretched behavior, it is better to think of them as full people, even to empathize with them, if only to maintain some sense of control.”

Read the full article.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the eminently quotable Jack Handey:

"I think my new thing will be to try to be a real happy guy. I'll just walk around being real happy until some jerk says something stupid to me."