Creating Solo Sales Success

by Terri Lonier, founder of WorkingSolo.com

Talk to solo entrepreneurs about selling, and you’ll usually get a strong reaction. Some will smile, and with a gleam in their eye, they’ll tell you how they love the challenge and the “thrill of the hunt.” Others will grimace and admit that they’d rather walk barefoot over glass than go out and hawk their products or services.

But let’s do a reality check. As a soloist, you’ve got to have somebody doing sales for your company -- a business can't survive otherwise. If your distaste of the selling process is so strong that it’s affecting your profits, it’s time to take action. Either find someone who can do sales for your firm, or increase your skills and become that salesperson yourself. Whichever you choose, it’s time to adopt a new attitude toward sales.

A New View
In my encounters with entrepreneurs around the country, I often hear comments such as, “Boy, I love my business, but I hate the selling part.” To me, that’s like the teacher saying, “Gee, I really like the school where I work, but having all these kids around is a pain.” (Unfortunately, I hear that comment, too.) Schools are about children, and selling is about customers. It’s where the rubber meets the road – or where a smile meets a face, a voice meets an ear, and two hands shake.

Until you can look a customer in the eye and tell them why you think your company’s product or service is going to change his or her life for the better, you haven’t mastered selling. It’s where many solo entrepreneurs choke or become shy or mentally shut down. They think that it’s bragging or being egotistical. It’s not. It’s sales, an important part of the business cycle.

Olympic Insights
I recall an interview in which track star Michael Johnson was asked what he was feeling when he was ready to begin a 200- or 400-meter race, competitions in which he holds world records and has won five Olympic gold medals. Was this world-class sprinter nervous when he put his feet in the starting blocks?

“Yes,” Johnson replied. “I’m always nervous. But that’s my comfort zone. I’m comfortable with that nervousness. I know it helps me to perform well.”

What an insight! Being comfortable with your nervousness – and enjoying that feeling.

That’s the approach soloists must take with selling. Yes, we run the risk of rejection. But without taking the sales risk we run an even bigger risk of not making any sales at all – and having our businesses certainly fail because we have no customers.

Copyright 2007 Terri Lonier. All rights reserved.
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