Learning the Art of Sales as an Entreprenuer

When a person decides to venture into Entrepreneurship it is very important to understand the aspect of Sales and Business Development. Not everyone who ventures into Entrepreneurship has a Sales Work experience – but is it critically to learn & understand the of art of bringing new orders and  able to sell the product/service that  you  had concept.

Before venturing into running my own business I had completed around 12 years of Work Experience with good exposure to new concept/product/process development, operations improvement and management of people & resources. I could run  complex projects and design  huge  warehouses & optimize large supply chains.

When I stepped into Entrepreneurship I realized all my work experience was focussed within the 4 walls of the factory or organization and I was lacking in the areas of Customer Interface & External Sales. As an a SME Entrepreneur I feel it is relatively to important to understand how the Sales Functions Work in your own company else you will be dependent on others and not have a control on the company targets & goals.

External Sales iS  different from  Internal  Sales

External  Sales was a very big mountain to climb for me personally. It was a lot different from internal sales ( i.e.) selling a concept or idea to my superiors or cross functional team. There pretty much you know you will sell through with some modifications. External Sales presents you with different challenges. I needed to convince potential customers why they should choose my product or service when there are so many others in the market.

Things to be prepared while dealing with external sales

1. Multiple rejections of Proposal
2. Continous follow-ups but still no conversion
3. Leads to Conversion rate is very low
4. Competition is unknown and cut-throat
5. Have to fight bureaucracy & transparency issues

Steps I followed to improve my Sales Efforts

1. Being on the field & make direct Sales Calls
2. Repeated iterations of improving from the first customer to the next
3. Fine tuning the offering, making a simple, clean and effective sales pitch
4. Being Transparent with the Customer
5. Maintaining good relationship with the customer & contacts
6. Ensuring quality service levels regardless of the value/volume

If you are looking to venture into Entrepreneurship I feel one should definitely get the hang of Sales & Business Development. End of the day whatever product/service which you offer has to be sold to someone…

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