One of the most difficult parts of entrepreneurship is selling. When I started out, I had a fear of selling, which I understand now was the fear of rejection. A friend in Singapore helped clarify this issue for me way back in 1993
He said that we develop a dislike for selling because we have seen our family shut the door on salesmen who visited our homes to sell us soaps and detergents. That was not sales, he said. That was peddling. Peddling is when you are trying to push a product that offers no incremental value to the prospective customer.
Selling, on the other hand, is communication designed to make the prospect aware of the benefits you offer.
One of the best books on selling I have read, and I have read a lot of them, is Strategic Selling by Heimann and Miller. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is responsible for selling in a complex sale environment.
The authors define a complex sale as one where multiple people within the buying organization need to say 'yes' for the sale to conclude but not all have to say 'no' to nix the deal.
The authors propose that there are at least three buyer roles within a complex sale situation that you need to convince. The Financial Buyer is the person or organization that will release the funds for your product or service.The Technical Buyer is the person or organization that will verify that the specifications of your offering meet their needs. The User Buyer is the person that will actually use your product or service and they need to believe that it will make their work easier or richer.
You need to cover your bases with all three. Ignore them at your own peril.
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