Do I Have to Get Better at Selling?

"Do I have to get better at selling?"

I get that question a lot. And the answer is, "YES." But it's not as bad as you think. You should absolutely get better at selling.

But your real goal is to build a business that doesn't depend on selling every customer one-on-one.

Why? While selling is very valuable, there are things we can do to reduce our reliance on it. When you step back from it all, you will notice that sales is just a part of marketing.

How Sales Got So Big

Decades ago, large corporations created a need for large sales departments because they were selling similar products to similar people as their competition. Selling like products to like people required a dedicated salesperson to convince the buyer to buy from them and not their competition.

Now, the sales force grew in both size and importance. The sales force was actually removed from the marketing department, and they created their own. But sales is still just a part of marketing. If you had a principles of marketing class in college, you learned the four P's of marketing. One of those P's is promotion, and promotion consists of advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotions, and direct marketing. Sales (personal selling) is just one thing that can help guide a buyer to buy. But when you are selling the same things as your competition, all of a sudden, you need to focus on the act of selling more than the other actions.

Not You, Though

As a small business owner, you can (and should) choose to offer a unique product to a unique person's unique problem. You don't have to be like your competition, and you better not be.

Now, you can focus on improving how you use the other forms of promotion. Better advertising, PR, social media, etc.

Even in industries where your competition is always having to sell, such as coaching. They often struggle to book discovery calls, and when they get them, they take off their coaching hat and awkwardly put on their salesperson hat.

What if, instead, you work on building up your Know → Like → Trust in other ways? A very specific niche. Weekly YouTube videos. A clear offer. A price based on psychology, not your competition. Use of proper CTAs (calls to action).

Before you know it, people will be clicking to do business with you from your website after being turned off by your competition.

There's more to this, but I hope that I took some of the concern that you have about selling and have given you hope.

So, Do You Need to Become Better at Selling?

Yes.

But probably not by learning clever closing techniques. Learn the N.I.C.E. Method of selling to get comfortable and become confident when you have to do it. But also, focus on using all the other ways that will move the buyer closer to the finish line on their own accord.

Don't build a business that requires you to become a better salesperson.

Build a business that makes selling easier.

This article first appeared in my LinkedIn newsletter, Approachable Entrepreneurship.

Want to get comfortable with the selling you can't avoid?

How to Sell When You Hate to Sell teaches the N.I.C.E. method, so the conversations you do have feel natural instead of awkward. And if you'd like company while you build the rest of the business, the Nice Guy Network is where we work on it together.

Get the Book →   Explore the Nice Guy Network

Keep reading: Confessions of a Sales Expert