You’re A Business Owner. Do You Have To Be Good At Sales?

Are you a natural salesperson, outgoing, and with a large social network? – Or are you more introverted and want to “do the work”?

There can be advantages and disadvantages to either personality type, but the most important thing is that you recognize your need to be the face of the company.

That may mean pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

If you’re introverted and want to work “in” the business, you’d need to push yourself to have regular sales-driven interactions with your clients and business partners. This is obvious.

However, if you’re extroverted, friendly, and outgoing your challenge is likely to be more process-driven to ensure the right people interact with your sales process.

Ahead of the fear of death, heights, and spiders, is the fear of public speaking (citation).  However, I would argue that selling is another fear-inducing phobia that exists alongside public speaking. Even some salespeople would rather do anything else than make a sales call or write an email.

The reason is a combination of a poor mindset and the fear of being disliked, rejected, or annoying. Together, this can make the act of selling truly anxiety-producing for some individuals.

If this sounds like you, to lessen your anxiety and improve your mindset, it might be better to think of “serving” instead of “selling”. That is, think of sales as the process of connecting potential customers to the services that will make their business run better and their lives easier.

This sounds like a natural win, but sometimes it isn’t. Yes, networking is vitally important to business growth, and being outgoing and personable will make it easier to meet people.

However, being overly social could lead to an issue of never getting into a sales conversation. Friendships, while enriching in other ways, rarely translate into closed business.

I’m not suggesting that you always have to be in sales mode, but sharing your love of what you do or sharing customer stories that impact you personally, is a great way to bridge the gap between being social and opening up a sales conversation.

You’ve likely heard that successful business owners need to work “on” the business rather than “in” the business.

However, if you enjoy innovating your service, if you’re constantly thinking of how to make improvements, and you enjoy delivering the service to your customers, then removing yourself from service delivery may actually hinder growth. 

Of course, there are still significant risks of working too much “in” the business. For example, the inability to delegate responsibilities combined with attempting to control business outcomes is sure to stifle growth.

If you’re unable to delegate, then you likely do not have a leadership team either.

The importance of having a strong leadership team to help guide the business cannot be understated when it comes to growing your business.

In this case, you need to acknowledge that you can’t continue to grow without letting go of some control. Consider hiring someone,either on a full-time or fractional basis, to help support the organization, such as a COO, CRO, or even a CEO.

I find that the best organizations, small and large, have a leader with a combination of the following traits:

A great leader is the face of the organization to the outside world and the advocate for the business inside. Together, this energy infuses the organization by inspiring the employees while supporting its customers.So, if this sounds like you and you still have misgivings about selling, then think of yourself as the “Ambassador” for your organization there to spread the good news.