Yogi Berra captured it perfectly: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else!”
Unless you know what your objective is, you’re not going to achieve it. If you don’t know where you want to end up, you’ll have no idea how to get there. What direction to head. What steps to take. You won’t know if you’re on the right track. Instead, you’ll be lost.
If you have a business, your most important objective—the bottom line, literally—is to sell your product or service. Otherwise, you won’t make money. If you don’t make money, what you’ll have is a hobby, not a business. All the high-quality content, mobile-friendly websites, and polished elevator speeches in the world won’t get you where you want to go. Like it or not, you’ve got to sell or you won’t stay in business.
If selling isn’t something you love to do; if you’re not a “natural-born” salesman (very few of us are), you might be relieved to learn that you can learn to sell! Being able to sell is not a personal quality that you either have or you don’t—and if not, you’re just out of luck. It’s a skill you can learn. You simply need to discover ways to sell that are comfortable for you.
As with any skill, however, learning to sell requires effort. If you’re totally new to sales, you should get some basics under your belt to get yourself in fighting shape. But there’s no shortage of help. Amazon is jam-packed with books on sales techniques. There are sales training companies that specialize in teaching you how to uncover needs and handle objections. A personal coach can help you stay motivated and maintain a can-do frame of mind.
But by far, the easiest way to feel comfortable selling is to be thoroughly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about your product or service. And to get in front of people who have the very problem your product or service solves! People who realize you can fix their problem want to hear what you have to say, (and here’s the best part—they WANT what you have). There’s no reason to feel nervous.
If you’re ready to take a step like that, my friend, colleague and Group Talk Expert, Jan Maresh, coaches you with customized help crafting your talks, finding your audiences, and getting over stage fright.
When you’re speaking to small audiences of interested prospects and sharing stories that move them to buy, selling is surprisingly comfortable. Jan calls it “Small Group Selling.” With such an easy, comfortable way to sell, you’ll end up achieving your most important objective—a successful, money-making business!
By now, you may be wondering how to do this “Small Group Selling.” Watch for my future posts to learn the next steps!
