Selling Safety Part I: 3 Key Elements Safety Pros Need to Close the Deal

Most safety professionals did not pursue the safety profession to be salespeople.  However, salespeople have superior influential skills that are critical to our role as safety professionals and our ability to protect people, property, and the environment.  As safety professionals develop, much focus is placed on technical skills, the ability to interpret codes, standards, and best practices and implement them into system design and policy development.  Safety, however, does not happen without the element of people, and the buy-in of all people within the organization can make or break the implementation of safety initiatives and the development of safety culture.  Safety professionals must add to their core competencies the skills common among salespeople to have influential conversations, demonstrate safety's value, and align this value to the organization.