The biggest challenge facing virtually all businesses is selling. Any enterprise rises or falls on the strength of its ability to sell their product or service. If sales are high, it thrives. If they’re low, it’s just a matter of time before it fails.
Most entrepreneurs fail because they lack selling skills, being over reliant on farming a limited number of existing customers while neglecting the need to continually hunt for new business; making themselves vulnerable to losing irreplaceable business if an existing customer goes.
There are three main reasons why selling has become particularly challenging in today’s competitive market place:
First, a buyer has many more options available to them. Everyday, numerous products and services are introduced into the market to compete with existing ones.
Second, competition has become sophisticated. Any average businessperson can easily spend the time and energy reacting to competitive activity rather than proactively developing winning strategies for their business.
Third, online media and communications including email and the internet has made people more knowledgeable and instantly aware of market trends and developments.
Buyers know their rights and will always demand value for their money. Any seller who takes them for granted does so at their peril. The customer expects and demands the seller to be professional when attempting to satisfy their needs.
Therefore, to succeed in business today you must be prepared to develop your selling skills through training, either through one-on-one tuition with a proven expert or by attending any number of professional selling skills workshops. Alternatively, one can always utilise the services of selling agents whose business is to fuel your sales pipeline with potential new business leads.
Selling as a function of business is a profession like any other and needs to be taken seriously by every entrepreneur.
