Here is a secret that may be difficult for you to believe, so prepare yourself. It is an extremely important secret that can have a most profound impact on the success, or failure of your business.
Before I tell you this secret, I want to ask you a simple question. Do you enjoy sales?
Stop reading for a second and write you answer on a slip of paper.
When asked this question, more than 80 percent of business owners stated that they did not like sales.
Why is your answer to the above question so important? I will tell you shortly.
You have probably seen headlines like the following, which glorify how easy and simple it is to succeed in business.
“Imagine Waking Up to A Huge Bundle of Money You Earned While You Slept!”
“He Travels the World With His Laptop and a Prepaid Internet Account While the Millions Roll in.”
"The Ultimate Lazy Way to Start Your Own Business."
"Cash in on a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry in Your Underwear."
"Easily Generate a Lucrative Income While Sleeping."
“The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.”
We are constantly being bombarded with these "easy ways" to make a million bucks. Does success in business actually work this way? Not in reality! Is it realistic? Not even close!
Your answer is important because the bottom line in operating a SUCCESSFUL long term business comes down to your ability to sell your product or service. It doesn't get any simpler or more complicated than that. You can either sell your own product or resell somebody else's product or you can sell a service. That is what businesses do. Your success or failure as a business owner will ultimately depend on your ability to sell what your business is offering. If you don't enjoy sales, you have very little chance of succeeding in business. Look at what you wrote on the slip of paper. If your answer was NO, then I suggest that you rethink the idea of starting a business.
Another self-defeating attitude of many new business owners is that their product or service, once launched, will miraculously sell itself. After all, the product or service is awesome and everybody will absolutely, positively want it. People should be lining up to buy it, right? I wish it was that simple. However, every successful business owner I’ve talked to has said that the first year or two of their business was very difficult. Sales were slow and customers were reluctant to buy from a new company. Most had purchased from new companies before and been disappointed with either the quality of the product or the service. With the horde of “here today, gone tomorrow” Internet businesses of the past few years, Internet customers are very leery of buying from a new Internet-based business. You have to build their trust in you before they will buy from you.
Here is another truth about sales. On average, it will take five to seven sales attempts to close 80 percent of your sales. Yes, you read that correctly. That's five to seven attempts before people will say "Yes, I want to buy your product or service." Running a one-time advertisement or making a sales pitch to a potential customer once in a while does not qualify as effort. Hearing that first "no" and subsequently giving up, means the demise of your business and gives someone else an opportunity to turn that NO into a YES.
What most people don't realize or fail to accept is that it may take weeks, months or even years to get a product or service to sell according to your expectations. You may have to frequently change your sales pitch, web site design or layout, advertisement or even the product until you get it right. This dedication and determination are what separates the very few successful business owners from the many “wannabe” and “fly-by-night” hopefuls.
The bottom line is that to be successful in ANY business you will need talent and the ability to sell, sell, SELL.
Gilbert Griffiths helped thousands of people during a professional career that spanned more than 35 years. He recently came out of retirement with a passionate goal to help one million people improve their lives. Would you like to be one of those people? If you would, go to
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