Being your biggest sales tool

For a small business owner or someone trying to start a business, don’t forget that YOU are your biggest sales tool.  What does this mean exactly?  First it means that you have to actively get out there and sell your business, interact with your target market, and invest the time.  But it also means that the following things can make or break you when you are interacting with a potential customer:

• How you speak
• How you dress
• Whether or not you portray confidence
• Whether or not you portray intelligence about your business
• Whether or not you know how to close a sale

Let’s think about a job interview as a good equivalent.  First and foremost you have to do your research.  You have to know the company, the job you are applying for, how your skills fit into that job, and how to sell yourself as the best person. 

But you also have 30 seconds to make a good impression and draw in your potential employer .  This includes your dress, your mannerisms, and your quick sale of yourself (who you are and what you do).  The rest of the time you have to skillfully sell yourself as the best person for the job.  Or at least sell yourself in such a way that they feel you might be a good candidate for future positions. 

If you blow it, you blow it.  It’s the same way in business sales.

As you try to grow your business, remember that even if you don’t make an immediate sale with a person, you are your biggest sales tool for ensuring that maybe this person will come back to you in the future.  Make sure you speak articulately and with confidence.  Make sure you have thoroughly prepared answers to all potential questions.  Make sure you have a rote answer prepared for questions you don’t know the answer to.  And make sure you have some materials to give them that they can reference and take with them. 

Sometimes it takes potential customers time to process your offering(s) and to actually solicit your services.  In fact, many times people will not purchase your product or service the first time they see it.  But that’s ok.  Just leave a positive impression in their minds and be sure to follow up. 

But also make sure your marketing materials are strong, so that your prospects have an incentive and a means to circle back with you if they so desire.  This is why sales and marketing go hand in hand, although that’s another blog topic (click here to read it).

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