He who can sell… wins
It happened again: Yet another conversation with a frustrated business owner lamenting a dramatic loss of sales to an outside competitor. By “outside,” I mean “out of state.” Someone who wasn’t even on the radar a year ago is now eating their lunch.
In each instance, the theme is the same. These competitors are aggressively pursuing new business markets. Only here’s the rub: they’re doing it with inferior products. These businesses have slapped together a product on the cheap and are selling it to customers who think that they’re getting a great deal.
These business owners are shocked and frustrated. They’ve worked hard, built a reputation in the marketplace, and put a tremendous amount of effort, money, and pride in delivering a superior product. They’ve been able, historically, to depend on word-of-mouth and reputation to sell that product for them.
And now, it’s a whole new ball game.
One question could be…do customers really care about quality? Or maybe it’s the perception of quality that’s the issue? The one thing I do know is this: these local businesses are being outsold.
In the book “Ready, Fire, Aim” by Michael Masterson (a great book, if you can get past the thick layer of self-aggrandizing commentary), his Rule Number Two of Entrepreneurship is:
“There is a direct relationship between the success of a business at any given time and the percentage of its capital, temporal, and intellectual resources that are devoted to selling.”
I wholeheartedly agree. Too many small business owners (0-$5M) get overly excited about their products or services. They expect the selling to either take care of itself or to be relegated to someone else. Selling is either a foreign concept, or worse, is in some way beneath them. This mindset, as many are experiencing now, is both arrogant and ignorant. It will drive some very good businesses into financial ruin.
I’m not minimizing the importance of quality. Build the best product you can, price it accordingly, and then sell – sell – sell. Never lose your edge in active sales and never allow your company culture to lose its sales tint. Stay engaged in the active pursuit of new customers. Business is not a time to rest on your laurels. It’s not a time to rest, period. Save the “good guys always win” mentality for the movies. In business, he who can sell…wins. Only active sales efforts will get them in the door. Quality will keep them ringing the register.
And by the way, advertising is not sales. But that’s a discussion for another column.
© 2009 Sandler Systems, Inc. Catherine Atkins President of Savant Business Development Systems, an authorized franchise for Sandler Training. [email protected]