The unavoidable ingredient in sales

Beautiful business woman,
a photo by stratfordcollege on Flickr.

The small business owner was feeling frustrated:  "I just don't know how I'm going to fit one more networking meeting into my week!  And I'm not closing enough deals to justify spending the money on going."

This business owner bought the premise that today's business environment is social, built upon networking, referrals, and relationships - both online and in person.  What he didn't think about was that the events that were filling his week weren't sales - they were marketing.  No wonder that he didn't have as many clients as he wanted!

The unavoidable ingredient in sales is the face-to-face conversation with the prospective client, where you (and they) can discover their needs and wants, and then see whether your products and services are a good match to meet their requirements.  Without that interaction, you have the potential for a few unsatisfactory conditions:

• They won't recognize the fact that their problem can be solved, because their daily focus is on handling it, not solving it.  They are busy operating.  So they won't even think of taking the initiative to contact you to buy whatever it is that you're selling, even if you can fix their problem.
• You will be tempted to present solutions for which the need has not yet been established.  This creates a feeling of pressure in your prospect and increases their resistance to your recommendation, even if it is a valid one.  You have to earn the right to present solutions via building the relationship and asking questions.  To be blunt, presenting too early is a quick way to make it harder to obtain appointments and an equally quick way to create a bad reputation in your business community.
• If you are networking all week long you will have made a lot of contacts and filled your calendar with a lot of happy talk, but not enough real sales "at bats" to generate revenue.  In the meantime, your fixed expenses continue to accrue, and the cash to pay them is going to have to come from somewhere.

Let's clarify the difference between marketing and sales, just to make sure we're all on the same page here:

• Marketing:  "Prepares the soil" for sales efforts by establishing image and general awareness.  The idea is for the marketing to start to establish familiarity and a relationship before the sales interaction, to increase the likelihood that the prospect will be receptive.
• Sales:  "Sows the seeds" for a customer relationship.  This is not necessarily a one meeting process.  Especially in business-to-business sales, there might be multiple decision points, several people involved in the process, budget and timing issues...all of which can affect the cycle time from "Hello, my name is" to "Sign here, please."

The marketing function supports sales, but it is not a substitute for the buying/selling conversation.  It might result in some customers coming to you without direct sales effort on your part, but who knows when that might be?  If you want to increase your sales, or speed up your cash flow, start setting those appointments - even if you have to skip a networking function to make time to do so. 

If you are worried about the potential for rejection, take heart.  It's going to happen, and most of the time it won't even be because of you.  Businesspersons out there are busy, they are on their own agendas, and some of them don't want to quit running long enough to learn an easier, quicker, better way to do their work. 

But your buyers are out there.  Stop keeping all of your good stuff to yourself.  Go talk to them, with an agenda right on the table "to see whether their needs are a good match for the products and services that you provide."  If you take time to make a friend first and ask questions about needs and wants second, you will have created a solid foundation upon which to present your solutions.

So what if they don't need or want what you are selling, or can't afford it, or the time isn't right?  If you have created the relationship foundation, they will come to you when they are ready, or they may choose to send a friend or colleague to you.  Stay in touch with them, send information to them that you think might be helpful to them. 

And time to time connect with them in another face to face.  That will help to keep you top of mind with them, and will help to ensure that you will stay tuned in to their changing business needs and wants.