What is the one thing an entrepreneur should never say that they hate doing? And this is something you should really hate because it is so vital to success as an entrepreneur.
It should irk your nerves to hear entrepreneurs say they hate dealing with anything related to selling. That does not even make sense. It is actually quite absurd when you think about it. There is absolutely no way an entrepreneur should hate anything that has to do with selling. Selling is what gives your business the capital to operate your business. Selling is what enables you to eat, clothe, and house yourself. Selling is how you produce the growth that moves your business to another level. Sell effectively and become a leader.
Making a statement that is so irrational as an entrepreneur is mind-boggling. You might not like the idea of selling because it feels sleazy and you believe that it seems forced, but this is only an excuse to not sell.
Why Selling is so Important
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You are sold to everyday and have no problem with it – it’s just business as usual. So why can’t you think the same way when it comes to your business? Thinking so little of your business produces little results and you are left wondering why your business isn’t thriving.
You know the answer why, you just don’t want to face the truth of reality. Your business is failing because you refuse to sell!
You don’t need to have a background in sales in order to be effective at selling. This belief is one reason why so many people are apprehensive when it comes to selling – they think that they don’t have the ability to sell. This belief is something that many small businesses hold – which is why they remain small businesses.
Selling is all about expanding your business by growing your customer base. Therefore, you cannot gain more customers if you are unwilling to tell them why they need your business. It’s ironic to even have to say this because most people go into business in order to run a successful business that they built themselves. But building a business cannot possibly happen without designating selling as the main objective to accomplish.
Ask any successful entrepreneur how they built a successful business and they will tell you it was all due to selling. Sure, they will mention great branding, providing value, creating an innovative product or service, but all of those things are centered around being able to produce sales.
Every entrepreneur or business owner should place a strong emphasis on selling. This emphasis should be on knowing how to sell very well. The distinction between the two is very significant. It is the difference between having an average business and a business that is thriving.
But knowing what selling can do for your business isn’t pushing you towards making sales a focal point of your business activities. There is still some fear or objection about selling that is holding you back from aggressively pursuing sales.
Why People Fear Selling
You are one of those entrepreneurs who just does not like selling. You would rather handle managing the operations of your business – it is easier to let those with more confidence deal with the selling process. You aren’t that confident and you hate the feeling of rejection. Dealing with people is something that you would rather not do.
You come up with multiple excuses to validate not selling, including:
Who would actually purchase my products or services?
How do I actually talk people into making a purchase?
I am just going to end up looking stupid?
They will probably think I am full of nonsense.
I’m wasting both my time and their time.
You defeat the sale in your head before even making your sales presentation. You sabotage yourself by believing the absolute worst will happen. And this negative thinking usually affects your sales presentation. You stumble over your words, forget what to say, rush through your presentation and make everyone in the room feel uncomfortable.
That’s a feeling no one wants to experience.
Get Your Mindset Ready for Selling
You must become committed to being a great seller. You should aim to produce a certain number of sales. You should be creating a minimum of 5 leads a day. But to produce significant growth, you should have a goal of contacting 20-50 leads per day – this goal is for those who are seriously motivated to make money.
This doesn’t mean being a stereotypical sales guy who tries to pressure people into doing something they are uncomfortable with. I am sure you have came in contact with this type of guys. These are the type of people who try to force you into buying from them, even when you politely decline their offer numerous times.
Never make the mistake of trying to sell like this. All you are doing is turning people off – further fueling the negative stereotypes about selling.
Do not be like the stereotypical used car salesman, who cannot be trusted for anything that they say. When you sell, you should be motivated to hit your goals and accomplish your initiatives so that you can produce the income that you desire. But do not go about doing this by lying or manipulating people into making a purchase they do not need. Trying to generate sales by relying on these tactics will only harm you in the long-run. Remember that you are selling to develop a business that has longevity, and not to make short-term money.
There is a significant difference between long-term growth and short-term revenue. Just because you have profits from bad selling practices does not mean it will last. People only do long-term business with people they like and trust. If any of the two criterions are missing, you can forget about securing customers who will remain loyal to you. And why should they if you are not even loyal to them?
You should sell your services and products only to those whom you can give a definite solution to their problems. You must listen to completely understand the problems that persist in their business – thoroughly analyzing what they must implement into their business to produce positive results. So your goal is to provide them with the solution to their troubles, not just an answer. Don’t immediately look to sell just any product or service that is not a real solution for their business needs. Remember you are selling to earn life-long customers.
Having consistent customers is worth more than many one-time buyers.
When trying to sell to an individual or organization, you will be required to know what solutions they have implemented in the past to solve their problems, what their current solution is for dealing with their problems and the ideal results they would like to achieve in the foreseeable future.
You have to look at this as more than being a seller. You are a strategist. You are a psychologist. When selling, you not only have to understand their business, you also have to seek to understand the thoughts and motivations of the individual.
Emotions are What Control People’s Actions
A great seller understands people are made up of emotions and thoughts, meaning that what they do is most likely a direct result of their emotions. Logical and rational thinking are supposed to be employed when operating a business, but emotions usually succeed in influencing a person’s final decision.
Here are three examples of actions that are made based upon emotions rather than logic:
The owner of a business chooses to keep employees on his or her payroll, even though they don’t have the ability to make their payroll – emotional thinking is the cause of their decision, rather than logical thinking.
A woman chooses to buy expensive clothes knowing that she has immediate bills due – emotional thinking is the cause of her decision, rather than logical thinking.
Two men get into a fight because their feelings are hurt, rather than discussing their issues with one another – this is due to emotional thinking ruling their decision, not logical thinking
The fundamental key to producing successful sales results is developing your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to correctly understand a person’s emotions, so that you can be effective in steering them towards the action you desire.
This may seem like a manipulative tactic but it’s not. Emotional intelligence isn’t about using psychology to manipulate people into purchasing the products or services you are selling. Instead, you are focused on identifying the reasons for what impedes their ability to achieve their desired results, and understanding their motivations for success. Having this understanding helps you to provide strong information regarding the value of the solution that your products or services provides to the potential customer.
The following is an example of how this works:
An e-commerce owner is having a very difficult time producing sales for his clothing business. He has content and invests into Facebook ads, but neither of these components is producing the amount of traffic desired. Since he is having a hard time, he seeks an advice of two companies. Company A barely ask’s him any questions regarding his business. All they do is mention their services, giving a brief explanation of why their services would benefit his business, and state their prices. Company B on the other hand chooses to ask insightful questions – this helps them better understand what the owner is currently doing to generate leads, and to be better aware of the problems that he can’t get past. After analyzing their conversation the company informs the owner that his content is too generic. The company also informs him that his ads are not made to target a specific group of people – a specific demographic more inclined to purchase the products on his website.
Which company do you think the e-commerce owner chose to spend his money with?
It is a no-brainer. He chose to invest with Company B. They made a real effort to listen to his problems in order to determine the best solution for his business.
Related Article : Words of wisdom from 15 successful entrepreneurs
Listening is the First Step to Selling
Simply close your mouth when selling and do not give in to the temptation to start explaining the benefits of your products or services. Choose, instead, to open your ears to understand. This will help you develop the ability to communicate better with people.
The claimed benefits of your product or service are not what entices people into making a purchase.
Customers actually want to be given real value when making a purchase!
It does not require rocket science to understand how to provide value to your customers. Listening to understand the frustrating issues and desired solutions of the person or organization you are seeking to make a customer is your immediate goal.
It is crucial that you understand communication isn’t about being the one who dominates the entire conversation. Communication is all about having an actual conversation, a beneficial exchange of information. This type of communication allows you to actually understand someone else’s point of view
You may realize that having understanding is constantly being acknowledged.
There is a reason why achieving understanding is so important for anybody who is selling. It is because most people who are attempting to sell don’t even take the time to know what their target customers actually need or want.
Therefore, they try to sell a product or service that is rejected because their intended customer never expressed any desire in wanting it.
The typical conversation of a seller:
When in front of or on the phone with a potential buyer, the seller chooses to dominate the conversation – speaking about nothing of interest to the potential buyer. The potential buyer briefly gets the chance to talk, but the seller doesn’t listen to understand what they are saying, their goal is to have a prepared response – communicating a sales script that was already written before the potential buyer even began to talk about the problem they were having.
This type of selling wastes the time of everybody involved – both your time and the potential buyer’s time. No win-lose or win-win situation occurs; it is just a complete loss.
When you listen to gain understanding, you position yourself to convert interested buyers into customers
Knowledge can be turned into gold
The key to selling is listening to understand the potential buyer. You will need to ask insightful questions so that people provide you with the information that you need to develop a perfect solution to their problems. Now you must apply the information gathered. This process will enable you to gain vast knowledge, allowing you to provide absolute solutions.
Do you want to know a secret? Actually it isn’t a big secret. Content is the gold that illustrates understanding, expertise, and value.
Showing You Understand
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Show your target market that you understand the problems they are experiencing, doing so helps develop a connection.
Entrepreneurs feel like they have no one to turn to who understands the process of building a business. Family and friends have no understanding of the challenges they encounter on a daily a basis. Support and encouraging words provide no real relief – real solutions are required.
As a provider of a product or service, you have to illustrate the problems your target market is dealing with. You must show that you have experience in dealing with their field of work. This will provide them with more confidence about your ability to assist in their efforts.
Your target market should feel as if you are speaking directly to them. Now you are establishing the connection that develops a loyal follower.
Illustrate to your target market that you can help them produce better results due to the Value of your experience. You want to be recognized as an expert based off of the information you share on a consistent basis.
Showing that you are an Expert
The problem has been outlined, now a solution must be given. This doesn’t mean a cookie cutter answer. Instead, this is a modified solution for the consumer that actually resolves their problems.
The key when doing this is to be very detailed. Doing so will pay off as more and more of your target customers take notice of what you are saying.
Neil Patel’s website, Quicksprout is a perfect example of how this works. He chooses a problem and then proceeds to give an in-depth breakdown on how to solve the problem. This is done on his free blog!
Neil’s payoff for providing valuable advice that is free is earning lucrative consulting gigs. Top brands use his knowledge to help them create powerful content, and to help improve the performance of their web presence.
Neil is able to secure these lucrative opportunities because he demonstrates his expertise on a consistent basis. He publishes 1-3 blog posts every week, demonstrating his vast knowledge of seo content, website performance, and etc.
Your goal must be to do the same in order to be recognized as an expert.
Show the Value You Provide
How does your product or service make you target customers life easier?
Value is the worth people associate with your business based off of the satisfaction you provide them with.
While you can communicate your value, it will have no effect without market validation.
It will be in your benefit to ask the potential buyer to give you the opportunity to validate your value.
Show them that you are committed to earning their trust, this helps you gain a customer.
When you have a reputation for providing value, customer testimonials and their word of mouth marketing will be effective selling tools for you.
Why You Need to be an Effective Seller
Being an effective seller gives you a better chance to develop your business into a 6-8 figure empire.
10X your selling process to produce a lifestyle of wealth and opportunities. The valuable knowledge present given by Grant Cardone, the master of selling, can help you achieve this lifestyle.
Your intention when you became an entrepreneur was to make a lot of money, so you shouldn’t have any issue with selling. If your products or services are providing people with value, then you should be compensated for your hard work.
