No matter what kind of solopreneur business you have, if you want to be successful, you must accept—no, embrace—the fact that you’re in sales. Unfortunately, pushy and obnoxious salespeople have created a sleazy, cheesy stereotype, and the thought of selling makes some people queasy. However, today’s successful solopreneur salesperson is nothing like that!
A successful solopreneur knows that a good sales transaction is a win-win proposition. It’s not about talking someone into buying something they don’t want; it’s about finding out what they do want and letting them know if you can help them with that. Most of us aren’t running million dollar businesses by doing nothing more than putting up a website. We get our clients from the people we meet through networking and other person-to-person interactions. These people need to know what you have to offer. If you don’t tell them, how are they going to find out? They won’t!
You need to sell yourself and what you do. And remember, selling is nothing more than matching your solution to someone’s problem! Selling is being in the right place at the right time in front of the right person and providing the right information. To do that the right way, you need to understand who you’re speaking with and what they need. Otherwise, you cannot know if you have a solution that fits.
Once you know there’s a match, you can offer your solution. Launching into a sales pitch prematurely just turns people off. Even if your solution is exactly what they want and need, they probably won’t tell you.
So how do you engage and connect with people you can help? There’s actually a process:
- Be clear about exactly what solutions you have to offer and what problems they solve
- Find or create something about your solutions that makes them better than alternatives
- Determine what kind of people are likely to have the problems you solve
- Go where those people go, do what they do, join organizations they join
- Meet as many of them as you can
- Be genuinely interested in them and their businesses
- Let relationships develop
- Listen for opportunities to offer solutions
- Sell yourself and your solutions.
Easier said than done, you might be thinking! Especially Steps 1-4. Sometimes, we’re too close to our own business to see what we have to offer or how to make it “special.” Or we don’t recognize all the kinds of people who could use our services.
If that’s you, click here schedule a time for us to chat (no obligation!). Maybe I can help you with your role as “successful solopreneur salesperson.”
