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Business Ownership
Nelson Mandela said; "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
I tend to think that resilience is the same. A resilient person does not notice the pain, but acknowledges it and keeps going in spite of it.
For any small business owner, being able to sell is a must. It is also one of the hardest parts of the job. Why? Because we didn't leave our jobs to be salespeople. We left to do what we love.
Here's the problem though. Without clients, you don't have a business - you have an expensive hobby (more on this here). Sales is also hard because we were never trained in selling. We have training in our respective professions, but not in selling.
Here are three laws to help guide your mindset when it comes to your sales activity. They are laws because, while you can break them, the penalties are severe (more severe than just bending some rules).
You know how it goes. You met at a networking event, or through a mutual contact. There is potential. Now you need to find the time for a more official meeting to start talking business. So you email this person and ask when is good for them.
No reply.
You leave it a few weeks, and then followup with that "Just checking you got that email" email. Still nothing. There are many reasons why this can happen. These range from lack of interest, through to (genuinely) not getting that email. The lack of interest reason is one for another post, another time. Let's focus today on how to increase your chances of getting that appointment.
If you're reading this, then you probably have an interest in improving your sales skills. If so, you've come to the right place. It turns out selling is hard. Why? There are two main villains at play.
The first is a lack of clarity. We can read all the books we want but when we actually go to 'start', a little voice in our head asks, "Where?" Starting the sales process for our own business is like wrestling with the proverbial roll of sellotape - we cannot find the end. This means we are much more likely to just not start - after all, there are emails to send, business logos to sketch and websites to build...
The second villain is actually a collective of individuals. This lot are pervasive and insidious, and are very effective standing in our way. They are called Performance Barriers. Performance Barriers are unhelpful thought patterns that stop us from executing on our big ideas. There are some common performance barriers when it comes to selling.
Here are a few big ones. Which is your biggest performance barrier?
Most of what I know about sales I learned backwards. I was a sales trainer before a salesperson. However, what set us apart from other "experts" was that we would go out on sales calls with the Reps with whom we worked. One such visit with a rep from our client company stands out in my mind as the worst sales meeting I have ever had. But it taught me a valuable sales lesson. Here it is.
