Most business successes started with simple selling. You've got to try it. I really challenge you to try it--lots of times. Don't do it once or twice. Keep doing it. Sell.I don't care if you don't know how or if you have no experience. All you need to have is the heart for it. Are you decided on a life of selling? Do you see the beauty and art in it? I've seen well-trained people who hardly made anything for lack of a heart for sales. And I've seen folks who hadn't the slightest training--even finishing only grade school--but who out did by far those who had ample training. Therefore, it's all about a heart for selling.
Of course, training won't hurt. Avail of training whenever you can, but it never depends on that. Your training certificates or diplomas don't mean a thing unless you develop a heart for selling. Those with such hearts do all they can and somehow end up with a sale. Then they learn from their experience and gradually fine tune their styles until they master one peculiar to them. If you have a heart for sales, no discouragement can stop you. There would be no sales season, when sales is said to be more than at other times. Sales that is formally educated will sometimes think of all excuses not to sell, but a heart for sales will only keep looking for sales.
Basic Selling
If you're starting your own small business, all you need is basic selling. And basic selling is simply offering your commodity. And this always starts with people you know. No, you don't have to make it sound professional--just sell. Say, Jerry your friend comes by to visit and you talk of how your lives have been going and he mentions about his job, that he's now the director of so-and-so and that's when you "casually" mention that you're selling a new and powerful product and then you hand him a brochure or the product itself. Then you talk about it with gusto (that isn't selling but you'd be surprised to find how that would often end in sales). Don't "sell;" just talk about the product.
Make Selling a Career
But you have to decide to make selling a career. This means basically two things:
- You establish yourself (or build the reputation of) being a seller of the particular product you're dealing with. Make everybody in your circle of friends and connections know that you're officially a dealer of such product.
- Make it a point to always bring with you a product or two. If you deal in coffee sachets, always bring a box or two or at least 10 sachets to sell or giveaway to friends and connections. Sell during both appointments and casual meetings. Or, at least have brochures or calling cards handy.
And that's another important factor--being a product expert. In selling, when people have identified or tagged you as a product expert, you begin to be sought out. If you're selling purple corn juice and people have come to see you as a purple corn expert, they're apt to mention your name whenever they talk about purple corn or even about a topic as broad as health or health supplements.
So there you have it. Selling is basically two things--having a heart for it and establishing yourself in a particular product niche.
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