Getting it Sold

Are you a wimp about Sales?  Are you AFRAID of Sales? 

In his fabulous book, How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competitors, Lawrence Steinmetz makes this observation:

 "Many salespeople really don't like selling.  In fact, a lot of salespeople think selling is just a notch above ambulance chasing.  The truth is, more than 40 percent of the salespeople I've tested fundamentally don't approve of selling – and my educated guess is that about 90 percent of our total population doesn't approve of selling.”

If salespeople don't approve of selling, and if 90% of all people don't approve of selling, no wonder so many businesses fail. 
  
As a result, you've learned to hate sales and cringe at the thought of being a salesperson.  However, the things you don't like about sales are things that don't work in sales.  You don't like pushy salespeople.  You know what?  Pushy salespeople don't make many sales.  We hate it when salespeople lie.  Well, liars don't make a second sale, which shortens their career in sales.  Fears about sales are founded in behaviors that don't create sales!

And, there's the fear of rejection.  You don't want to ask someone to buy and have them say, "No".  To be successful, you must transcend this fear.  If you or a team member is "sales-phobic" you better get on the road to recovery.   

Overcoming Sales Phobia

This exercise will make you aware of sabotaging, "sales-phobic"” thoughts and actions in your company and help you increase your sales appreciation.   

• Recall purchases that made you happy.  Today, you've bought power, water, sewer, internet service, phone service, fuel...without even thinking about it.  Because it's so convenient, you agree to have these basic goods and services constantly delivered.  Think about your ongoing purchases.  Over time, with financing, you're buying your car and your house.  During a month's time you've bought food, clothes, entertainment, education, haircuts, vitamins, school yearbooks, family outings.  Fun stuff!  Wonderful purchases.  Without sales you would spend all day every day gathering food and water and obtaining basic clothing and shelter. 
• Realize the connection between sales and world peace.  Good sales are good trading practices.  Good sales allow you to focus your energies on your skills and talents, and offer them to the world in exchange for money.  Then, you can offer that money to others to secure their livelihood, while benefiting from their skills and talents.  Good sales build solid communities and our best chance at world peace.  Certainly governmental distribution of goods and services is a poor substitute for free market trade. 
• Understand that without sales you are out of business.  It's easy to go out of business.  It's easy to lose money in business.  Either way, you do a disservice to yourself, your employees and your customers.  As a profitable business owner, you are a pillar of society.  As a losing business owner, you are a burden to society. 
• Promise never to sell anything your customers don't need or want.  Does that make you breathe easier?  Good sales and good customer service go hand in hand.  Offer your best to your customers, and ask them if they would like to buy.  Good sales feel good to everyone involved.  Sales expert Bill Stiles says, “Think of yourself as your customer's assistant buyer.  Your customer has a problem.  Offer solutions.  Help solve the problem.
• Accept that people want to buy from you!   Review your USP - Unique Selling Proposition.  Aren't your customers better off if they BUY? 

Now, get out there and sell.  Let people know about your great business.  Today, and every day this week, you and each of your employees will....

• Deliver Ten Elevator Speeches.   Find ten people, preferably strangers, and deliver your Elevator Speech.  Hand out your business card, too.   Watch for their reactions.  Do they react positively?  Do they look bored or confused?  Do they laugh?  Review your USP and revamp your Elevator Speech until it causes people to respond with, “That sounds interesting.  Tell me more.”  Ask them what business they are in.  Listen.  Share an authentic human moment. 

This exercise will expose any “"sales-phobia"” at your company.  Discover the sales-lovers on your team.  Uncover the “"sales-phobics".”  You are going to help them overcome their fears.  Or they are going to “get off the bus.”  Tomorrow we will lay out a bare bones basic system for creating a sales-focused company. 

The game is SALES.  It is an honorable game.  Good for you for playing! 

You may want to update your Elevator Speeches in the Setting Sight section of your Plan Binder.  Also, keep assembling ideas, “"to do's"” and projects on the Master To Do List.  We will work on organization and strategies for Getting it Done in the Getting it Done section of The Bare Bones Biz Plan.

"Keep your focus on sales.  If the top line is right, managing your business is easy.  If the top line is too low, everything is a struggle."

- George Barnett

Getting it Done