Posted on: Wednesday, August 6, 2003

Proprietors must believe in what they're selling

By Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Many people start their businesses because they have great products or services. Their strengths lie in taking an idea and turning it into an enterprise.

Then they discover they must become salespeople as well — and many are faced with the stark reality that they don't like or are afraid of selling, and they don't know how to do it well.

"I cringed. I don't like the connotation of selling, and I hate to be the one doing it," said Damian Bazadona, owner of Situation Marketing, a consulting firm in New York.

Like many other entrepreneurs, Bazadona learned how to sell as he did it. Trial and error — and, hopefully, successes — are the way that many business owners turn themselves into better salespeople.

Bazadona said selling got easier when he used the passion he felt about his company and the services it offered. "What's going to make or break you in terms of sales is you have to believe in what you're selling," he said.

Josh Barsch had a similar experience. Now the CEO of StraightForward Media, an Internet marketing company based near Phoenix, Barsch said he learned that it's easier to sell "if you truly believe that you're not out just trying to pry money out of somebody's pocket and that what you're selling is truly beneficial to them."

A business owner who needs to become a better salesperson can get advice from others who have undergone their baptism by fire.

"I've done a lot of networking and found out what works for other people," said Corby O'Connor, a business etiquette consultant based in Essex Fells, N.J.

Networking can itself be an opportunity to do some selling, she said.

"I find what works for me is to get out there and let people see my product, even if I'm not getting compensated," O'Connor said.

Barsch advised: "Look at the big picture — you don't just want a sale today, you want a long-term customer."

One way to get that kind of relationship going is to keep your focus on the customer and his or her needs, not your own. Barsch said that means putting aside your anxiety about making a sale, a difficult but necessary task when you're trying to build a company.

"The worst that can happen is you'll come out and not have any money, which is exactly how you walked in," he said.

"When you do that, it translates into a more relaxed demeanor — you're not desperate, and that translates over to the person you're trying to sell to.

"If you're going in there like a shark sniffing blood in the water, people aren't going to buy from you."

Part of your focus on the customer means tailoring your pitch to individual needs. What worked for the last client might not work for this one. Not only does this client have different business needs, but it's also a different person.

Bonnie Russell, the owner of 1st-pick.com, a Del Mar, Calif.-based service that matches consumers with doctors, lawyers and real-estate brokers, learned to be alert for signs of how receptive a prospective customer was. For example, she said, "when someone is really listening to you, the silence is a different silence."

Russell found that in some respects, her pitch was secondary. "It was my listening skills that worked better than anything," she said.

There again, the focus is on the customer, not the business owner trying to make a sale.