Think Beyond the First Sale
Ask any entrepreneur and he or she will tell you that nothing is more exhilarating than making that first sale. That customer’s “yes” is a validation of you and your idea; it lets you know that your hard work is paying off and you are on the right track. It will also help keep you motivated and inspired when you face the inevitable rejections, objections, and challenges in the future. That said, success in making the first sale does not guarantee venture growth and ultimate business success. You must use that momentum to continue to build and lead a sales process, culture, and team. Remember, sales growth is the only sign of vitality; stagnation in sales is a red flag that your venture is not competitive, losing its innovative edge or even in danger of failing. So, by all means, celebrate that first sale, but do so with the next sale in mind.
You Should Always Be Selling
Let’s go back for a moment to that Estee Lauder quote at the beginning of the book: “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” Everything you do should directly or indirectly facilitate the following: visibility, likeness, engagement, trust, trial, repeat business, favorable word-of-mouth, and community with regard to your product. As the owner of the business, you are its #1 salesperson. Furthermore, buyers prefer to buy from you than from your staff. Buyers are aware that the buck stops at your desk, so they take your promises, explanations, and responses to their questions or concerns as final. It’s a more efficient use of their time when they interact with the CEO because there is little or no “let me get back to you on that” talk. Besides, you know the product more than anyone else and the passion you have for your product should be unrivaled. All things being equal, no one is better placed to sell the product than you.
“During the first ten years of the business,” said Pablo Moreno of AMPM, “I was both the CEO and Selling Manager. Even now, with a very big team, selling is still my [job].”
For Tom Wiese, people are selling all the time, whether they realize it or not:
Life is about selling. I mean, if you want a great life partner, you’re going to have to sell yourself. If you want anything in life, you gotta sell—you need to be influential. So it’s probably one of the most important skills that exist for entire life happiness. It’s extremely important to the extent that if people aren’t good at that or they overlook that, it could hurt them.
JB of P’Kolino made a similar point:
Everything you do in business really—if you’re on a customer relation side, or if you’re communicating ideas—involves selling. You have to put your ideas together and communicate them, understand what the other party is looking for, and meet those needs. So we weren’t in formal selling roles, but we had experience selling and convincing people of our ideas.
As Sagi-Brink Danan of Perfuzia Medical pointed out, effective selling is also needed when your company is going through “growing pains” or other changes.
I think the actual transition from research—from development and clinical trials—is selling. That’s a huge transition. I think it’s much easier to get people to do a study than to actually buy your product. When [consumers] do a study they get paid for it. The clinician gets paid. The hospital gets paid. Everyone gets paid. When they need to buy a product, they need to pay you for it, and that’s a major, major shift in the relationship. And I think more companies just assume that, you know, we have this product, there’s a great need in the market. As soon as we make it available, everyone is going to buy it from us, and that’s very rarely the case.
Having a sales skill, process, plus the right attitude coupled with your knowledge and passion can help you excel at generating revenue growth for your venture while motivating others, especially your salespeople or third-party sales organizations, to sell for you.
Inspire the Rest of the Sales Team
Guillermo Oropeza of Doc Solutions had this to say about working with your sales team:
My best advice [is] to surround yourself [with] capable people. Attract these people with a great knowledge behind them, with a great school, a great career. All these aspects are vital because in this way you will have the kind of people who share the same genes, same DNA and then you can really integrate a team with winning and resolute people.
We all want that perfect team from the start of the venture; however, the truth is that you will probably have to make some changes along the way. Staff members may leave or you may let them go for a myriad of reasons. Whatever the case, you must remember that you are not only the owner, CEO, etc, but the leader of the sales team; therefore, everything you do as a salesperson is an opportunity to inspire and motive the others. For example, when you go through the selling process described in this book, you obtain valuable market intelligence along the way, which can be the topic for meaningful conversations with your staff members. When they then interface with your markets, they will not “tell you stories” because they know you spend time in the trenches (on the street, sensing and engaging customers and markets) alongside them. As a result, they will respect you more and draw inspiration from your sales effort and approaches.
Stay True to Your Values
When you ask someone why they want to be an entrepreneur, they have many answers: they want to chart their own course; or they like to build things; or maybe they think they have worked in an industry for years and feel they can provide better quality to the consumer than the establishment. However, underlying all of these reasons is that entrepreneurs are determined to live by their own values—perhaps they want to start a philanthropy to fill a need in an underserved community, or maybe they have ideas about how to treat staff or sell to customers. That said, it can be tempting to compromise on those values when facing obstacles. Perhaps potential investors want you to modify your business model, or you are struggling to put together a staff that followed your desired sales method. We contend that while you may certainly make adjustments as needed, you should do so within the parameters of your vision.
Guillermo Oropeza advises entrepreneurs to:
Take care of your reputation now, so later you can surround yourself with good people; so that you open your ears wide and be receptive to new ideas about the business model you have generated, and with those open ears and with the very good people on your team, you could launch a very successful idea.
When asked his views about selling, Felipe Santiago of Logistica Alfin replied:
What I think one must do with a customer is to be direct, tell him the truth, tell him what you have, what you don’t have. “Discover the truth about what generates value to the customer, discover what could generate value to you with him, and discover how to lead him to see he could win with you.”
This approach to sales is not only ethical but also lucrative. “The best customers I have had in [my] legal, hospitality, and real estate businesses are those I have met within the same business [i.e., cross-sell customers],” says Victor Kanán, “when I knocked on their door and [said], ‘This is what I offer you, this is what I have, this is my product, this is my dream.’ And this is how they have bought from me.”
Gonzalo Del Valle of D&D Consultores made a similar point about the importance of being forthright.
There are two ways of reaching a customer. One is inductive and the other is deductive. In the inductive one, you try to lead him into a decision. “Hey, for you it is convenient to … This is the best … Trust me …” I don’t like this way of acting. The deductive way is to lead him to his own conclusion that you are a good option for him. The deductive way is always the best …
For Del Valle, part of respecting one’s values sometimes means turning clients away.
At length you should learn to [purge] your list of customers, keep only those you wish and don’t accept everybody. You need to know what you are selling to know whom you are attracting. If a customer comes and tells me, “I am here so you can make me rich,” he or she is in the wrong place. We do not speculate with markets; we preserve capital. Don’t say, “Yes, I will do it for you!” because it is not true. You should promise only what you can accomplish. Managing a client’s expectations is a critical component for a mutually beneficial relationship. “Never, ever [promise too much]. You need to orient the customer in his expectations. We are often tempted to say that the customer is [always right], but this is not true. When the customer is not right you must let him know it.”
Alberto Moreno is the founder of Linea 7, a metal design and manufacturing company in Mexico City; his philosophy, however, applies regardless of one’s location or industry.
“The key is going beyond customer expectations,” Moreno said. “[You must have] an attitude of serving, or solving problems for the customer. Many times we have been there; if we don’t have what the customer needs, we look for it. And if we don’t get it, we tell him where to find what he needs. And the customer always goes away happy. Most of [our] competitors, well, they are not the owners. People in [mid-level] positions don’t really care to go further.”
Never Give Up
When asked about her philosophy on entrepreneurship, Halima Kiniti of Halkin General Contractors in Nairobi said, “I’d advise them, don’t fear. Don’t fear loans, don’t fear human beings, don’t fear—always focus, get what you want to get and don’t get intimidated … Entrepreneurs, they need to be straightforward, honest and not be afraid.”
For Sergio Mariscal of Sociedad Cooperativa de Consumo Pemex, objections are just one of the many challenges that force entrepreneurs to take stock of their situation and deal with them head-on.
Sail against adversity. Do not become desperate, do not lose your head. Think carefully, establish a petit comité, which for me included my father, another engineer who worked with us—to talk about [issues], look for other choices, see all possible options and always have alternative schemes. Take actions when they must be taken, rather than remaining preoccupied and inactive. [When the problem arose], we immediately began to talk about it, and we acted quickly. Do not let your problems bury you because then you lose. You lose your dream, your health, etc. The only way to reduce problems to their real level is to step on them and attack.
Strength, perseverance, and a refusal to be ruled by fear were commonly cited among the numerous people we interviewed for this book. Forgoing a steady paycheck to start your own venture can be a terrifying thing, and as Sergio Mariscal of Sociedad Cooperativa de Cosumo Pemex said, [entrepreneurship] requires “a lot dedication, discipline, and planning; [you must have] alternative plans in case things don’t come out as you wished.”
We have covered the creation of business new ventures from a variety of angles, including the sales process, how to handle objections, and even spot unethical practices on the part of potential collaborators. But no matter how stringently you follow these suggestions, you will encounter obstacles on the way. You will also inevitably get the unsolicited opinions of those who do not share your belief in your idea, or in entrepreneurship in general. No matter how many naysayers cross your path, you must hold steadfast to your dream. Ultimately, the most important ingredients for a successful entrepreneurial venture are the willingness to take risks, think outside the box, and above all, never give up.
As Alberto Moreno said:
The most important thing for me is perseverance. To be persistent, never drop out of the dream. I mean, if you wish something, you must work for it. If you look for a market niche or if you believe there is one niche, attack it with your whole strength. I mean, go and do whatever you need to do to get inside (that market).
Peter Russo sums it up perfectly.
I’ve never been the brightest guy. I’m not the smartest. So enthusiasm, energy, commitment, passion—be all those words, because you’ll meet entrepreneurs that are quieter than a mouse and lazy as a slug, but they have other characteristics. If you’re brilliant enough, or you know how to manage people well enough, there are all these things that can make a business successful. My business success is completely based around passion and making that passion contagious.
The entrepreneurs interviewed for this book come from a wide range of industries, geographical areas, and just about every walk of life. Yet they all agree on one thing: from that light bulb moment through every phase of a venture’s life (whether for profit or not), selling—the art and science of obtaining buy-ins—will always be an indispensable asset.