Sales a difficult lesson for small firms

Many people start their own businesses because they have great products or services. Their strengths lie in taking an idea and turning it into an enterprise.

By Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press The Chicago Tribune

Then they discover they have to be salespeople as well–and many are faced with the stark reality that they don’t like or are afraid of selling, and they don’t know how to do it well.

"I cringed. I don’t like the connotation of selling, and I hate to be the one doing it," said Damian Bazadona, owner of Situation Marketing, a consulting firm in New York.

Like many other entrepreneurs, Bazadona learned how to sell as he did it. Trial and error–and, hopefully, successes–are the way that many business owners turn themselves into better salespeople.

Bazadona said selling got easier when he used the passion he felt about his company and the services it offered.

"What’s going to make or break you in terms of sales is you have to believe in what you’re selling," he said.

Josh Barsch had a similar experience. Now the CEO of StraightForward Media, an Internet marketing company based near Phoenix, Barsch said he’s learned that it’s easier to sell "if you truly believe that you’re not out just trying to pry money out of somebody’s pocket and that what you’re selling is truly beneficial to them."

A business owner who needs to become a better salesperson can get advice from other company owners who have already undergone their own baptism by fire.

"I’ve done a lot of networking and found out what works for other people," said Corby O’Connor, a business etiquette consultant based in Essex Fells, N.J. Networking can itself be an opportunity to do some selling, she said.

"I find what works for me is to get out there and let people see my product, even if I’m not getting compensated," O’Connor said.

There is also a whole industry devoted to teaching small-business owners how to become better salespeople. Consultants and business gurus across the country give seminars and courses and sell DVDs.

Help also can be gotten from Small Business Development Centers located at many universities and colleges around the country.

You can find them at http://www.sba.gov/sbdc and from SCORE, the organization of retired executives who give advice to small-business owners. SCORE can be reached at http://www.score.org or by calling 800-634-0245.

Bookstores are another resource. They carry a variety of volumes on how to be a more effective salesperson. O’Connor said she’s found books to be most helpful in explaining how to keep business relationships and to make customers happy rather than how to close a deal. She suggested that for many businesses, selling should be about establishing a long-term relationship, not getting a single order.

Barsch advised, "Look at the big picture–you don’t just want a sale today, you want a long-term customer."

One way to get that kind of relationship going is to keep your focus on the customer and his or her needs, not your own. Barsch said that means putting aside your anxiety about making a sale, a difficult but necessary task when you’re trying to build a company.

"The worst that can happen is you’ll come out and not have any money, which is exactly how you walked in," he said. "When you do that, it translates into a more-relaxed demeanor–you’re not desperate, and that translates over to the person you’re trying to sell to.

"If you’re going in there like a shark sniffing blood in the water, people aren’t going to buy from you."

Part of your focus on the customer means tailoring your pitch to his or her needs. What worked for the last customer might not work for this one. Not only does this client have different business needs, but he or she is also a different person.

Bonnie Russell, owner of 1st-pick.com, a Del Mar, Calif.-based service that matches consumers with doctors, lawyers and real estate brokers, learned to be alert for signs of how receptive a prospective customer was. For example, she said, "when someone is really listening to you, the silence is a different silence."

Russell found that in some respects, her pitch was secondary. "It was my listening skills that worked better than anything," she said.

There again, the focus is on the customer, not the business owner trying to make a sale.

Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

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