SME OWNERS HAVE PASSION FOR THEIR BUSINESS, BUT NOT NECESSARILY FOR SELLING
What many self-employed traders and Small Business owners (solopreneurs, micropreneurs) have in common is that their business was inspired by a passion, a talent or an idea, but not by an enthusiasm for Sales. In fact, this makes perfect sense. As a general rule, the personality traits of innovators and inventors align better with things than with people (yeah, we know about Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos to name a few and they are notable exceptions so please don’t write a comment).
If you add to that some of us may have experienced questionable Sales Tactics during the most important purchases of our personal lives (house, car, mobile phone, and insurance for all three) you can imagine why those of us who are not “people people” might insulate themselves from the negative image that Selling creates in them by using one or more of the following excuses that represent a reluctance or even fear towards the idea:
“I’m no salesperson”
“I don’t know how to sell”
“We get all our customers by recommendation”
“Our product/service sells itself”
Whatever the real or imaginary reasons, if you are an SME owner you have two choices: either you sell, or you hire and pay a professional Salesperson to sell for you, because if you don’t, your business won’t last very long. In both cases, to either hire, or run the sales department yourself, you will need to beat your fear of selling. In this post we offer Small Business owners 15 ways to do that. Follow the hyperlinks to learn more.
1 UNDERSTAND YOUR FEAR Before you can overcome it you have to understand it, so what, precisely are you afraid of? Rejection, because you are sensitive? Failure, because you are a perfectionist? Making a fool of yourself, and losing your pride? Or maybe what “other people” say? History is littered with businessmen who failed in all sorts of ways, and then succeeded. To get over it, practice your sales pitch and make mistakes with “professional” friends and family.
2 SELLING IS THE SKILL, SALESPERSON IS THE JOB Around the world, Selling moves innovation, encourages competition, and drives prosperity – and it’s not just Salespeople who do it. Selling is a skill, and many of its greatest experts are Small Business owners.
3 KNOW YOUR OFFERING You will obviously know the key characteristics of your product or service, but Prospects will buy because of the result of use, i.e. what it will do for them, not what it is. Remember that Telling is not Selling, keep asking questions during your Prospect engagements to get market feedback and refine your use cases.
4 GET ORGANIZED You need to know what you said, to who and when (and what they said back to you). The best place to keep a record of all this is in a CRM, not a spreadsheet, or a notebook (the paper kind).
5 SELLING IS A NUMBERS GAME But maybe not in the way you think. You need to be obsessed with numbers, disciplined with your diary and find time to engage with Prospects and Customers. The more you do it, the more you’ll end up Selling.
6 REJECTION IS NOT PERSONAL Prospects reject your offering, they don’t reject you. Don’t take it personally, it’s just business.
7 LEARN FROM EVERY INTERACTION Successful Salespeople have a way of planning and documenting everything. There is no such thing as a wasted call. They don’t simply improvise when a Prospect raises an objection; they’ve normally heard it before or analyzed it before the conversation. You should document everything but particularly the reasons Prospects give you for delaying the Sales Process.
8 SET YOURSELF REALISTIC OBJECTIVES It’s unlikely you’ll sell to everyone so don’t get upset about it. Use the information you are gathering to create realistic success metrics and then set about improving them.
9 SEEK OUT SUCCESSFUL SALESPEOPLE And copy their habits. You don’t have to invent every wheel.
10 DEVELOP YOUR OWN STYLE You can still be you, you don’t have to be a sales superhero. If you don’t have the type of personality that sweeps all before it don’t pretend that you do, being the best version of you inspires trust. There are plenty of successful, introverted Salespeople, and your Prospects will appreciate your authenticity.
11 FIND A METHODOLOGY AND STICK WITH IT Everyone needs a structure on which to base their sales pitch. Look up SPIN Selling, Sandler Training and Vitoselling to name a few (and follow the posts of TheSalesManual, of course).
12 DON’T DO WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE If you find there are aspects of Selling that you really don’t like, don’t do them. The Sales Process can be segmented and you can hire companies or individuals to perform parts of it – like cold calling, and appointment booking, for example.
13 “NO” ISN’T NO FOREVER Remember, “No” is just a temporary state. They could be begging to see you tomorrow.
14 DON’T GET DISCOURAGED IF YOU DON’T CRACK IT FIRST TIME Professional Salespeople frequently need to climb a steep learning curve before they master their pitch, and if you are new to Sales you’ll have to do the same. If you start converting Prospects into Customers quickly –fantastic! If not, don’t be discouraged, they’ll come.
15 CELEBRATE YOUR TRIUMPHS Professional Salespeople see the glass half-full to maintain their morale, and so should you. Celebrate every triumph, no matter how small it may be at the beginning. One Prospect today, two tomorrow!
Did we cover everything? What scares you about Selling that you don’t see here? Leave a comment and let us know, or contact us via DM on Twitter @SalesManual, by WhatsApp, or email.
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