Anyone with a little business sense knows that sales are everything . Or well, more precisely the beginning of everything. Business is sales. Although many experienced businessmen and women might claim that business is profitability, for a business to be a business it has to leave a profit, reward or surplus after having covered all the expenses related to the operation. However, the truth is that there is no profitability to pursue if there are no sales first. That is why I like to say that “business is sales” .
When an investor has an entrepreneur explaining his business case, the first thing he asks is: Are you already selling? If the answer is yes, then he asks: How much do you sell? Beyond whether the new solution proposed by the entrepreneur is attractive or not, we first want to know if it sells. Because it may not be something very attractive to me, perhaps because I am completely unaware of this turn of events or because I do not identify with it, or even because it seems like the most absurd idea. But if it sells… Ah! If it sells, the story changes. Because for any investor, sales are part of the attractiveness because it indicates that there is an interested market and then it is a business alternative that is worth exploring.
But what is necessary to sell? That is, to make a market interested? Well, many things such as: marketing strategies, advertising, an institutional sales method, salespeople, sales training, customer relationship management software, resources and tools such as a product and service catalog, price lists, travel expenses, etc. But above all and most importantly, good salespeople are required. Right? Beyond all the sales seminars, all the styles, all the profiles, all the techniques. I know a salesperson who is exceptional, he can put the greatest sales master to shame.
His profile is like this:
- It has the ability to bring well-qualified prospects with a high conversion rate.
- You don't need an office.
- No travel expenses required.
- He doesn't need a client base either, because he brings his own.
- He is such a good salesman that he does not need the company to invest hundreds of thousands of pesos (or dollars) in marketing and advertising.
And the best of all: they work “for free”, you don’t need to put them on the company payroll, you can hire them without any workload. You don’t need to assign them a manager or supervisor to guarantee their results, they are self-managed and self-motivated.
But he has only one flaw: his temper.
- He likes to be treated like a king: he is self-centered, arrogant, he likes to feel important and take control.
- He is unreasonably demanding.
- Sometimes moody and despotic.
- He is not very charismatic, he does not integrate easily and some people in the company prefer to avoid him, but the good thing is that if he is treated well he does not have much contact with the staff and does not create a bad atmosphere.
- The truth is that he is difficult to please.
- He is not very expressive, in fact, he only reacts when his emotions are taken to the extreme: surprise or disappointment.
But within all this, one good thing is that he is very emotional. If you manage to connect with his emotions you can develop a long-lasting business relationship with him.
This star salesperson is called the Loving Customer , and the most incredible thing is that if you manage to get one, it is relatively easy to get many more. Just don't confuse him with another one called the Satisfied Customer, they look similar, but they don't have the same profile. The satisfied customer has no intention of selling for you, nor is he a detractor, but he doesn't have enough motivation to be part of your team.
Set everything up to get customers in love with every interaction, and what follows is just managing success.
Carlos Rodriguez Zorrilla
Business Consultant & Trainer: Growth, Strategy & Management