Stop Selling Your Business

As soon as you stop selling your business, you'll see sales increase. Jeffrey Gitomer said this best: "PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO BE SOLD! PEOPLE WANT TO BUY!"

Concentrate more on your business and yourself and less on selling anyone something. Here's an analogy before I get into the explanation:

You are in a room with 30 other professionals. You have each been asked to stand up and tell the group about yourself, your business, and what you are passionate about. You have just a few seconds to accomplish this. As others are introducing themselves, what are you concentrating on? Human nature says you aren't totally comfortable with public speaking so you are concentrating on what you are going to say, how you are going to get out of your seat to stand up without spilling anything, and you are wondering if there is anything in your teeth. Your brain is quickly figuring out how you get the biggest bang for your buck. If I use my full name I won't get to tell much about my business, maybe I'll just use my first name so I can emphasize the business name and what it is I'm selling/doing or providing.

Whew...glad you got that figured out, it's your turn. So you stand up gracefully, introduce yourself quickly and you feel great as you sit down feeling like you accomplished a great feat. In this scenario, you likely didn't hear very much about the others in the room. Those who went before you were playing second fiddle to your planning of your own introduction and those after were only whispers to the voice in your head that was congratulating yourself on a smooth presentation.

You just lost out on a networking opportunity as well as 29 potential sales - because you weren't listening. You were in sales mode and it's highly unlikely that this mode is going to help you make any sales in this day and age.

If you really want to increase sales, you need to actively listen and identify a need. Had you been listening to the 29 people in the room, you would have heard "Hi, I'm Sharon from Company XYZ and I'm filling in because so and so is out on maternity leave, but I usually work in the _______ department" which would have been a great lead for your friend Betty who runs a staffing agency. Passing along that referral to Betty would have opened up the door for dialogue about how your business could help her business and you might have ended up scheduling an appointment to meet the CEO of a nation wide staffing organization who is ready to sign a contract with your company. You also may have heard "Hi, I'm Lisa - formerly of Company XYZ and I'm looking for an administrative position with a local office" which is exactly what your office is looking for. 

You miss too many opportunities when you are selling your business. You also don't seem as genuine as you should be. Concentrate more on the following aspects of business:

*Get in front of people through networking

*Be an active listener

*Identify needs

For more bits of wisdom from me, follow the Relax Consulting blog or call and take me out for coffee and I'd be happy to chat with you. For more bits of wisdom from the business guru himself - Gitomer, subscribe to his FREE weekly blog: http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ThisWeeksColumn.html