Tag Archives: customers

Blog

Selling with passion leads to success

When we look at the motives for starting a business, one which stands out as the most durable is passion. The entrepreneur has a hobby, they wanted to make a difference or they have a great emotion for a subject that makes them want to start and develop a business around it.

This passion was their motive for starting and developed into their motivation to make this venture succeed. These are amazing businesses which develop around a person and lead to great entrepreneurial lifestyles that ensure their passion is maintained, developed and built upon. A self sustaining motivation leads to business success.

This success is also due to customers liking the entrepreneur and their passion for the product. They sell with their passion on their sleeve and for all to see. It’s a very simple yet powerful sales technique which only a few entrepreneurs can carry off, but it pays in pure dividends which I recommend, if you can, duplicate.

No one can take away your passion, only you, so it is a very powerful force in driving you to success and others to face the fact they believe in you. This self belief is the key to any sale, people buy from people and as you are the top of your game, you are in the right place at the right time. So when buying a product they look for people they like, they want to do business with, or people who make them feel good. Your passion does this, so make it your sales mantra which drives your success in sales.

People with passion for their product also say no, when customers ask for changes which they don’t like, increasing the desire for the product. People with passion have a vision they want the product to go in and therefore a vision which the client can buy into. Passionate people make the best sales people.

Start selling with passion and create your success in sales today.

Blog

Empathy and Ego make good Entrepreneurs

These are the two key components that make up a substantial amount of your communication abilities, yet mostly overlooked.

Ego is very often gets misinterpreted as being arrogant, cocky or snooty, but rather it is having a healthy understanding of your own self worth, the ideas you generate and the opportunities which lie ahead. Entrepreneurs have to believe in what they do, have the ability to communicate this to their investors, bankers, suppliers, employees and customers. Make these stakeholders, not only agree, believe they want to be part of this amazing (ad)venture which currently is just in an entrepreneurs mind. Without a strong autonomous ego you are one less tool short, one step closer to bankruptcy and therefore lacking the support from others you need. You need a strong, indestructible ego.

Every successful entrepreneur has a strong ego which allows them to generate a solid mental image of the product which they can creatively and confidently express to others. Their ego then shines through developing empathy within their valued customers and other stakeholders to create a business relationship.

Empathy is the skill of being able to put yourself in the other person’s position and understand how they might feel, the needs they have, or the requirement in a particular situation. This skill of determining a client’s need for the product or service that you are offering is core to being successful in business.  It’s a core skill of the entrepreneur which will sit next to your cut instincts.

Your success as an entrepreneur comes down to your attitudes and beliefs about you and your products. Whether you are aware of it or not, these will reveal themselves to your clients, in emails, over the telephone, marketing material and at face to face meetings. Empathy and ego are core factors that affect the way you communicate your attitude to customer and therefore should be looked after, maintained and be made a solid foundation for your future.

Blog

Cool for Cats, Sales is for Entrepreneurs

As an engineering graduate, sales is ‘that stuff’ which other people do. When I became an entrepreneur the hard facts that everyone has to sell hit me, even though I had developed a product which was sold and downloaded on-line, how come?

We built a successful business with 160 customers in 60 countries without even employing a single sales person. Our company moto was ‘If you found a pump, pump it’ which meant if you saw a task which needed doing then you owned it. As a young dynamic entrepreneurial business everyone wanted to find as many pumps as they could, for experience, to ensure they were a key part of the business and also to ensure the business became a success. Our company of around 20 people continuously out preformed the sales of larger international players, how come?

Our products were downloadable mobile games. If we produced a press release over 500 websites would pick this up, if we had a new game, people would email to ask where they could get it, if we missed out supporting a handset people they would offer to test the game for us. Everyone thought we were cool (for cats). I even got mobbed on the Sun Java Stand at an exhibition, how cool is that (ok, I am a geek).

So did sales came easy?

No we had to learn fast, we had multiple levels of customers; operators, handset manufactures, newspapers, magazines, on-line portals, aggregators and end users. We had 60 countries to deal with in terms of: numerous currencies, customs and languages which all complicated the sales process.

The key, as with all sales, is turning an online product into a personal relationship which we could manage. This meant developing a complete sales cycle and customer experience solution which our customers could buy into and our competitors could only aspire too. We had to understand each client, their needs and requirements. We had to get out of our office and meet these people and make sure they liked us, our products and the complete experience we provided. The end result being they wanted to continue to do business with us every single month: repeat business.  In short we had to become an international sales force, learning on the job, we had to sell.

So if I can do it, I’m sure you can.