When are we selling?

Joanne Wilson has a nice post up about how raising money as an entrepreneur is all about sales.

Selling has a bad rep thanks largely to the old fashioned glib talking used car/ insurance salesperson. We associate selling with broken promises and lies. So, the natural reaction is to confine selling to as small a role in our lives as possible. Right? Let’s take a moment to look at situations when we are selling.

We sell when..
..we are convincing someone to hire us
..we are negotiating a raise
..we are pitching to our managers to accept our project idea / give us a new leadership opportunity
..we are introducing ourselves
..we are looking to hire someone
..we are convincing people to do pretty much anything – yes, even convincing our partners and friends to go to that restaurant or when we are convincing our kids to go to sleep
..we are presenting or talking to an audience

We are selling all the time. The product we are selling most of the time is ourselves. Yes, there is the occasional time when we have a brand to sell. But, in most cases, the brand is secondary to you. If your client likes you, she will buy your services. Brands help only so much. We demonstrate loyalty to people we like.

So, if we’re having trouble selling our primary product, we only have 2 real choices –
1. Fix the product. Get better. This is typically an iterative process so patience is key.
2. Learn how to sell. Do this by being aware of the many times in the day you are selling and get better at it. We spend a large part of our lives selling. There is very little to be gained by avoiding it and a whole lot to be gained by embracing it and getting good.

So, study sales. Learn to listen. Ask good questions. Practice it. Fail. Get better. Do what it takes.

But, most of all, just get better.