You are a Salesperson – Yes You Are!

Many people say, “I hate sales” or “I’ll never be a salesperson”, but when you became a business owner you had to be a salesperson. Let me show you some of the areas of your life where you had to excel at sales just to get started in your business.

Me First

The first person you had to convince to be self-employed or to launch a business was yourself. This could have happened over many years, started because of an abrupt change in your employment, or it could have been your life-long dream. Any way you got started there was a time that you had to evaluate the legitimacy of your idea. You had to sell the idea to ‘You’.

Help Me

You then had to convince the people that support you that you were doing the right thing. Maybe this was your spouse, parents, adviser, mentor, coach, therapist, or partner. Whatever the relationship, this can often be a very tough sell. Some may have said to you, “are you sure”, “maybe this isn’t the best time”, “can’t you get another great job, you have the experience”. Unless you come from a family of entrepreneurs you would have had to come up with some very conclusive supporting arguments to get these people on board.

More Money Please

Did you fund your business yourself? If so did you have to get a larger line of credit or credit card? The bank is going to need some selling, or at least some collateral. If you found outside funding then you definitely needed to have a good idea about your business value and how your investor was going to get their money back. This is selling 101.

Comfortable Selling

You would think that after all this practice you would be better at it once you got into your business, but most people find it difficult. Just know that you must be a great salesperson to have a great business. You need to get the best employees to join you, the best referral partners to support you and share your product or service, the best suppliers to give you extra time to pay when things are not going their best, and the best network of people that believe in what you do and are willing to share it with others.

This is all before you turn your sights on your potential customers. I am thankful you are a salesperson, because without you, there would be no economy at all.