1 What is selling?

Money being handed over for goods.
Figure 1 How an online sale might work

As an entrepreneur, your ability to sell your product’s big idea to potential investors, or sell your product and service to buyers, can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet how comfortable are you with the concept of sales and selling?

Activity 1 Your experience of selling or being sold to

Timing: Allow approximately 15 minutes to complete this activity

What is your experience of selling or being sold to?

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Discussion

If your immediate reaction is to think of pushy, aggressive people foisting unwanted products on you at inconvenient times, then you may well not want to be associated with that. Or if you fear having your idea or request rejected or criticised then this will make it harder for you to approach sales confidently and positively.

To become effective, selling your business or idea comes down to how you feel about it, as the first thing that people will buy into is you – even before they know about your product or service. As the old adage goes – people buy from people!

If you don’t convey confidence and passion for your own idea, why would you expect others to engage with you? After all, they have alternatives.

All too often the act of selling is regarded as manipulation or even exploitation. Yet that is not the case at all, as this definition highlights:

Selling is any transaction in which money is exchanged for a good or service. During a sales negotiation, the seller attempts to convince or ‘sell’ the buyer on the benefits of their offer. If the buyer wishes to strike a deal, they will give the seller an agreed upon amount of money in exchange for the seller’s product/service. Put simply, selling is the act of persuading.

(Prater, 2018)

At their core, selling and sales are simply about providing solutions or solving problems for potential buyers. Sometimes those buyers (including investors) might already have expressed an interest, but on other occasions you will need to find them and persuade them of the merits of what you have to offer. In such cases successful sales can require both ‘problem finding’ and ‘problem solving’.

While ‘problem finding’ typically involves significant research and investigation, ‘problem solving’ can mean demonstrating not just how your idea, product or service meets a need but also how it resolves a problem faced by the buyer. Equally, depending on the stage of the sales cycle, you might need to spend time establishing your credibility, describing the key benefits and advantages of your offering, or even dealing with objections (Leverington, 2016).

As long as you undertake this process honestly and are meeting the genuine needs of buyers, then selling should be seen in a positive light. One writer in the area of sales makes the point that:

  • Selling is not about achieving the salesperson’s goals; but fulfilling those of the customer.

  • It is not about making sales; but helping people buy.

  • It is about concentrating on the process; not the outcome.

Every business owner has a commercial imperative. They need to make sales in order to stay in business. However, selling is ‘win–win’; not ‘win–lose’.

(Leboff, 2007, p. 3)

More than that, however, Leverington (2016) is clear that, ‘the key is to remember you are having a conversation; it doesn’t have to be a hardcore pitch’.

2 Who are you selling to?