Selling is an art, selling is a science and selling is a profession.
And selling scares me.
When I started my practice I called my Dad for some advice. He’s been in business for himself for over
twenty years. I respect him and his opinion and I know he won’t hold back if I’m doing it wrong.
We chatted about being self-employed for a while, the challenges and the opportunities and I shared
with him that the thing that intimidated me most about being self-employed was the selling. His
response? “And well it should!”
“Pardon?” I asked.
“If you put on a fancy suit and deliver a polished presentation with glossy materials and push for the sale
you’re going to fail.”
Gee – thanks Dad!
He wasn’t quite done though. “You’re not a sales professional, you’re an accountant. You’re going to
have to market your practice, but it can’t be through traditional selling.”
He went on to say that when people came to me they were going to be looking for help. Help with a
problem – and selling for me was going to be crafting a solution to that problem. And therein lies the
key – I can solve problems. I’ve been doing that for years. Problems involving finance, taxation,
accounting, business process development, human resource management – pretty much everything but
the kitchen sink (I left that part to the plumbers!)
That’s the key to selling for most of us – finding the need to be filled, the problem to be solved, the
consumer desire to be satisfied. It’s not something they teach you in school, but if you can do that and
consistently deliver great customer service your business will grow!