Starting a business makes you a sales person

Whether you like it or not when you start your own business you immediately become a sales person.No one is going to promote your company for you. No one is going to sell your products harder than you will. No one should know your business better than you do.With the popularising of social media it has become even more important that everyone understand that social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are being used as a sales tool whether you acknowledge it or not. Customers are looking for you, finding you, reading your content and you are missing out on sales if you're not thinking like a sales person.So if you haven't realised it yet and you're sitting around waiting for the sales to pour in, ask yourself, when was the last time you peddled your own product?

Don't Preach...Sell

I have been in meeting after meeting this week. People pitching me ideas, concepts, website, companies, organisations and people pitching people who know people who can possible do something for me.If there is one thing that I cannot stand it's when people don't know when to stop selling. Learn this lesson quickly: Pitch me your product, tell me about what you do but then stop. Finish. End. Quit and let me think about what you are telling or selling me. Do not try to resell and rephrase and re re re re re. I got it. I'm a quick learner (or so I've been told).Another thing that has irritated me beyond belief is self proclaimed experts from abroad who have learnt how to "fix" our "problems" here in SA. Do not preach to me about the airs and graces of the United States of America (said with a pseudo-American-twang). Do not go in to a meeting with a South African entrepreneur and tell him that South Africa is 20+ years behind America technologically. That is not a good way to sell me on your product or concept.The next thing is research. In today's day and age it is possible to gather a vast amount of information about someone from the internet. Look at this blog. I have my personal details on here, I have links to things that can help you clue together my background. Go and visit my LinkedIn profile, its all there. Then come in to a meeting knowing about who I am, what my company does and where we are planning on going. Research, research, research.These are basics that I have seen in maybe two of the eight meetings I have had this week. How can people still be missing this stuff? It's simple. If you haven't thought about this before, then you are hearing it now. Think about it and you will soon realise that if you do not prepare you will not be successful. You can't invade a country without weapons, you can't sell yourself without research.