As the Founder, Your Biggest Strength in Business is Sales
Today, I’m talking to you about the third biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make, and that is this, my friend, it is your mistake that not recognizing that your ability to sell is the most important thing you have going for you.
What is Your Greatest Strength as a Salesperson
Here’s what you’ve got to understand, as an entrepreneur, you are going to be your best salesperson within your business – at least initially. See, no one understands your business as well as you do. I can guarantee you that. Especially when you start a business. It’s not about saying I’m going to create the product and business, and someone else will sell it for me. It doesn’t exist; it doesn’t happen.
Now there are very, very rare cases of this where your best friend, your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad, your kids, someone very, very close to you is an incredible salesperson. And there are very rare cases where that might work, and someone else will come in and sell your product.
In most businesses, even businesses that have been around for almost two years, three years, five years, ten years, even businesses that have over a hundred employees, almost always I can guarantee you, the founder is by far the best salesperson at that company. Now some of you are going to say but Arman, I’m not a salesperson right? But here’s the thing, you don’t have to be a salesperson, and I’ve talked about this plenty of times that I’m sure in the future I’ll talk about sales.
It is not about being a really good car salesman, that’s not what it’s all about, it’s about believing in your product or service enough to go out there and tell people from the heart what your product or service is capable of doing and what value it adds to their lives.
And showing that you, as the founder of your business, the CEO, the big person on top, you’re the one who can do it better than anyone else. So you might be listening to this podcast, maybe you’re an entrepreneur and not the entrepreneur who started this business, that’s still okay because if you listen to a podcast episode about business, you could be the one who is the best salesperson.
As an Entrepreneur, Your Primary Job is to Sell
But you have to understand this; as an entrepreneur, it is your primary job to sell. You got to get out there, and every day you got to be selling your business because that’s the only way you’re going to grow your business. So many business owners that I talked to, so many people I coached, that’s the number 1 thing I have to coach them on is that I have to get them to get out there and sell more.
They’re always hesitant because here’s the thing, let’s get real, the toughest thing in any organization is selling. By far the toughest thing, which is why salespeople in most organizations make more money than everybody else. Why do we pay salespeople so well? Because it’s the hardest work, it’s the work that never ends; it’s the work that you put your heart and soul out there every single day.
You got to be on the phone smiling and dialing and talking to people, and you got to be able to take the next rejection and just roll on to the next call. You’re going to get out there, meet people, shake people’s hands, remember names, take business cards, giving business cards, remember people’s information, follow-up with them.
Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses
You got to do all that stuff, track your sales funnel. It’s not an easy thing to do. That’s why my friend, you as the entrepreneur, as the founder, as the person who believes in your product or service more than anyone else, you are the one who’s responsible for selling.
SO get out there, and you got to be focused on selling every single day. Because if you don’t sell, no one else will. I’ve got a company that I’ve got around for something like 7 or 8 years, and I can tell you within my business to this day, my Vice President of Sales will tell you this, my salespeople will tell you this, to this day I am by far the best salesperson in that business.
And I’ve got other companies that I’ve got around for less than a couple of years and in those businesses, I’m the best salesperson.
Now I don’t have as much time as they might, right? But I’m still when it comes down to getting in front of the customer and selling, I’m the best salesperson we have, and I’m not that great of a “salesperson.” All it is is that I believe in the product and service so much.
I know it so well that I can add massive value, and show people how my product or service, whatever it may be, is going to add massive value to them, their company, their lives, or whatever it is and that’s how I sell.
But when it comes to someone else who sells for me, they are almost never going to be able to gain the level of knowledge that I have. They are almost never going to be able to gain the level of passion that I have. Now, I’m fortunate and blessed that I’ve got some of the best people in the world working for me, some of these people actually give me a run for my money.
But that’s taken me years to develop, my VP of Sales has been with me for over seven years. And I’ve trained this guy inside and out on all this different things.
And now he does an incredible job, but I can tell you five years ago, when he’d been with me for two years there was no way you could even get close to doing what he does today. He could not possibly be able to perform the way that I did back then but so many business owners I see, they’ve been in business for a year, two years, five years and they’re still thinking oh someone is magically going to come and save the day. Now I’m not telling you to not have a sales team, I have a company that has a sales team of almost 20 people. There’s nothing wrong with that.
You Have to be Your Top Salesperson no Matter the Size of Your Team
You can have a big sales team, but the thing you have to understand, is in order to get there at first, you are going to have to sell.
You’re going to have to train other people to sell and even as your company grows, there’s still going to be a time where you as a business owner, I don’t care if your company is a multi-billion dollar corporation, you as a business owner are still going to have to step in and sell.
You look at some of the top CEO’s in the world, you look at someone say, Mark Zuckerberg. I guarantee you when Facebook is trying to make a big sale whatever it might be, I guarantee you Mark Zuckerberg is in that room because no one’s going to sell Facebook the way that Mark Zuckerberg does.
Look at Tesla, what does Tesla do, when they are unveiling a new car. Who do they put out there? Do they put their director of sales? No, they don’t. They put Elon Musk, the founder, the guy who is Tesla. He’s the one who gets on TV and sells their product and service, right? He’s the one who believes in the model X or the model whatever, more than anybody else does.
He’s the one who gets out there and sells. That’s why these companies are successful. In your business, you better be willing to put on your sales hat, your sales shoes, your sales pants, your sales socks whatever you got, you got to put on.
You got to get out there, you got to sell. So my friends, this is an episode that is really important to me, because I got a lot of my coaching clients that I’m going to be telling to listen to this episode. You must get out there and you must sell. It’s funny because as they’re listening to this, every single one of them thinks, he’s talking about me.
No, I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about all of you because you’re all making the same mistake. You are not selling enough. You got to get out there. You got to sell more. You got to believe in yourself more. You got to believe in your sales abilities more.
And some of you are salespeople, like you know, how to sell, we’ll you got to get out there and sell even more. And some of you are well like Arman, I’m not a salesperson, I don’t care, you get out there and sell anyways.
You love your product; you love your service. And I know you like to grow your business, make money and take your value and add it to as many people as possible. So get out there. I want to end this episode by challenging you. This next week I challenge you to have the biggest sales week you’ve ever had.
I want you to get out there yourself and I want you to sell like crazy. This is your week to sell and I don’t even care what you do, you could be in a restaurant business, I don’t care, stand on that line and sell upgrades from a small drink to a large drink.
Sell the garlic bread, I don’t care what you do in your business, get out there and sell. If you’re doing B2B, set appointments, make cold calls, this is your week to sell. Sell. Sell. Sell. Sell.
This is the third biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make. I’m coming to you next episode with the fourth-biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make. It’s a big one and it’s one that affects your business in ways that you never thought possible.
So make sure that you tune in to that next episode. Now if you’ve not listened to the first two, make sure you go back and listen to those first two mistakes. Again, this is something that is not included in my book, The Business Bible, which by the way is an awesome book. Pick up a copy of it. Love you guys. I hope you are out there having fun with your business and I want to see you sell like crazy in this next week. And while you’re out there and selling, always remember lead with your heart.
