Selling—The process of Exchanging Goods, Services, or Intellectual Property for Payment
Perhaps the most differentiating mindset between an entrepreneur and an employee lies in selling. Without sales, there is no income. Without income, there is no business. Entrepreneurs are intentional about selling their products, services, and information. There is no room for being coy when it comes to selling.
Most employees are not conditioned nor trained to sell. For employees, tasks are not always tied to the bottom line of an organization, so there is no incentive to sell. As an entrepreneur, sales must always directly connect to the tasks you do or money will be elusive. If you have never had a sales role, I strongly recommend that you take a sales course or read some books on sales. Long before I became an entrepreneur, I had a 100-percent commission-only sales job in the financial services industry where I sold mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, and more. If I didn’t sell, I didn’t eat. It was then that I learned to hone both my people skills and selling skills.
Selling is all about finding out what people want and offering it to them. It’s that simple. It only gets complicated if you make it to be. It’s not about convincing people to buy something that they don’t need just so you can line your pockets. Of course you can do that, but you should want to operate with the highest level of integrity. I’ve been trained the wrong way to sell and I’ve been trained the right way too, so I can tell you which one will get you the best results and allow you to sleep at night.
My first experience with sales training was taught by an old-school guy who sold “by any means necessary.” He called it prospecting. There were all kinds of crafty sales scripts I had to learn (which were totally unnatural to my personality). He taught us to present all of the unique features and benefits of the financial products to the potential clients. It wasn’t until I was retrained the right way that I realized that I had been trained totally wrong.
I learned the right way to sell when I went for my certificate in an Integrity Selling class. I learned mostly about how to become a better listener so that I could pick up on buying signals from the potential clients. I learned how to ask the right questions that revealed to me exactly what the client needed before presenting them with any solutions. Take notice that I said solutions and not products. When you are selling, you are solving a problem, or otherwise meeting a need or giving clients what they already want. This is known as consultative selling. In a sales presentation, I talk only about 15 percent of the time and let the potential client talk the remaining 85 percent.
The key to selling with integrity is to be a principled person yourself. Customers can sniff out a snake oil salesperson from a mile away. Not only will you probably lose the sale, but chances are you will lose their respect and any chance of winning any future business with them. While there is an element of persuasion in sales, your primary focus should be on serving your customers well in a mutually beneficial way. In the age of social media, bad reviews often spread faster than the good ones, so don’t stray from your values to make a dollar.
During a pitch or sales presentation, I take notes—sometimes written, other times only mental notes. By the time the potential clients are done speaking, I will have already come up with some solutions to the problems that they said they have. I usually present more than one option, because everyone loves options, and then I let them choose. I also discovered that people buy from those whom they like and trust. I’m a pretty affable person, so I usually just win people over by simply being myself. And this is how deals are closed!
Selling is a huge part of operating a profitable business. It’s the one area of your business you cannot neglect. If you are fortunate enough to have enough startup capital to pay salaries, hiring a sales team would be a wise investment. If you can’t just yet, then it would be to your advantage to learn sales techniques. There are lots of great sales training companies and conferences on selling.
For many people, including entrepreneurs whom I have coached, selling has a negative connotation that causes unnecessary trepidation. Selling is often associated with being pushy or dishonest. The reality is, when done the right way, this could not be further from the truth. Some don’t like the notion of sales because they don’t like to risk being rejected. They have created a false narrative in their minds that people don’t want what they have to offer. Others just don’t like the idea of promoting anything that has to do with themselves and feel that promoting their business, product, or service is somehow conceited.
Take a moment to think about any hang-up you might have about selling. Any fears about putting yourself, your brand, or your products and services out there will hinder the success of your business. You will need to confront and overcome the root causes of these issues so that they don’t become stumbling blocks on your journey. Consider that selling is your announcement to the world that you have something great to offer that people want, need, and are willing pay for.
When selling, consistency and often times persistency are keys to closing deals and making money. This is where many fall short and give up too soon in the sales process. A potential customer may not be ready to buy immediately, but that doesn’t mean he/she won’t at a later date. A “not right now” response is not a “no.” Therefore, having a follow-up process in place is key. I refer to this process as relationship management.
In your mind, you have to believe wholeheartedly in what you are selling. You have to believe that it is valuable enough that people will need or want what you have to offer. You have to be convinced that you might get a disproportionate amount of “no’s” before you get one “yes.” Your mind has to be strong enough to not take it personally or become discouraged if you didn’t get that sale you wanted. There are other fish in the sea. Keep fishing! Others will see the value you are presenting and buy from you.
Market research and successful selling go hand-in-hand. If you’ve studied the market and you know your target market well, then you will be able to fine-tune your sales strategies to attract customers who are actually willing to buy. As you perfect this, you’ll start selling to a more defined and more specific audience of potential customers, and your odds of closing deals will increase. Once you figure out what you are doing, your confidence will skyrocket and you’ll become unstoppable!
It is worth noting that although having someone in your organization who has mastered sales techniques and strategies, sales is still a people business. When I teach my master class sessions, I always remind my students that business is 90 percent relational and only 10 percent transactional. If you don’t learn how to build relationships with people, whether it’s online or in person, you will likely fail in business. Learn how to master relationships first, then sales. Although many businesses see customers as tools to make money, that won’t create loyal, long-term customers. Make a conscious effort to serve people well in your business. Sales without good customer service will ultimately end up creating a revolving door of customers in your business.
People can usually more easily remember a poor experience at a place of business than they can a good one. Can you recall a time that you had a bad encounter with a salesperson at a company? I can recall several. My most recent poor experience was with a timeshare salesperson who put his bestselling skills to work but then became condescending when I explained that I was not interested in upgrading. He was also not very forthcoming and omitted pertinent information that he should have disclosed. He forgot a key ingredient in the sales process, building relationships.
Whether you are a solopreneur or you have a team that you delegate to sell, proper training is a must or you will lose business. Selling requires a person who is comfortable putting himself/herself out there and can face the risk of being rejected. Here, I reiterate the importance to taking risks. Sales is such an integral part of doing business that any mental hang-ups or prejudice about sales can make a business to go under. The process goes like this: marketing ---> sales ---> revenue. Marketing is about being visible. Sales is about connecting with your clients and exchanging a product or service for money. Revenue is about the company’s income, which should ultimately lead to profits.
Sales should be a daily business activity and should be made a priority. Many new business owners make the mistake of working so closely on their business and doing lots of administrative activities that they forget to close deals. Another rookie business blunder is mistaking social media followers for customers. While they may all be potential customers who might engage with your posts with likes or comments, converting them to loyal paying customers is when the real sales process begins.
Social media primarily serves as social proof for followers with vanity likes and comments. However, social media can be used as a form of marketing if the posts are leading its followers to buy something. There are also ways to advertise through paid social media sites to prevent your company’s social media pages from bombarding followers with sales pitches all day. Soon, followers will get annoyed and will scroll pass your ads, or, worse, unfollow. Although social media can actually be used as an effective marketing and sales tool, let’s not forget that it was first designed for connecting socially. Because business is based on building relationships, engaging with prospective customers online can help with fostering a larger and more loyal clientele.
As an entrepreneur, you have to think in terms of what your customer wants. Market research and website analytics can help you to understand your audience and their buying behavior. What you think is a great product, service, or information may not be so great for your target audience. Never blindly assume that you know what your customer wants or needs.
COMPANY EXAMPLE: Target
Target has a very smart sales strategy. It focuses on the three main business drivers: online sales, toys, and home goods. By focusing on growing in the areas that bring in the most revenue, it has achieved the highest sales growth in 2018 than it has seen in the previous 13 years. Target has seen a 41 percent increase in online sales alone. The retailer attributes their massive sales growth to being customer focused, adding more exclusive brands for customers ages 20 – 30, and adding celebrity home decor product lines. It’s clear that Target understands what its customers want and need. (Bhattarai)
As you can see from the company example, Target, there is a certain psychology to the sales process. It is advantageous for any business owner to gain insight into this process to understand the way human behavior drives buying decisions. Thinking strategically of ways to connect with potential buyers is paramount to the sales process and to your overall success in business.