ENTREPRENEURIAL SELLING COMES OFF SUCCESSFUL BY UNDERSTANDING REAL CUSTOMER NEEDS.
For successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial selling means understanding real customer needs, responding to changes in the market and creating value. It also involves using every opportunity to keep your business idea and vision burning in the forefront of your employees’ consciousness, to constantly motivate them, boost their morale and faith. To give entrepreneurs immediate feedback on what they are doing or what they should be doing differently is a function of selling which is a form of communication.
Selling themselves first before anything else characterises successful entrepreneurs. Not compromising their set of core values and beliefs makes them visible to their bankers, customers and employees. In so doing, they secure to themselves the benefits of the trust of the various relevant stakeholders.
In a certain degree, entrepreneurial selling is about entrepreneurs providing something that they believe is worthwhile and something they love. This motivates entrepreneurs into selling successfully with passion. To believe in the value and benefit of their product or service insulates their enthusiasm from rejections and objections, and helps them to persevere and rebound back. Debbi Fields stepped out of her first store with a tray of chocolate chip cookies, when no one walked in, and nearly begged people to try them. She was obviously proud of what she was selling, a delicious way for people to feel good. How others perceive what we do depends a lot on how we feel about what we do. Our effectiveness in interacting with others is impacted by what we think of ourselves.
Making and keeping a promise is what entrepreneurial selling is, not just about initiating a transaction. By listening and probing empathically, entrepreneurs acquaint themselves with customer needs and then satisfy them. James Stowers turned American Century into a $100 billion dollar investment firm from a $2,000 dollar stake by helping people to achieve financial independence, not to buy mutual funds. What we call what we do influences how we think about what we do.
All will be no success if an entrepreneur fails to set himself or herself apart from the competitors in the marketplace. This is best done by clearly and consistently differentiating what he or she does. Entrepreneurial selling is about putting into execution a plan to bring about this differentiation. Learning what preoccupies the customers, their problems and concerns, is a good starting point. With the knowledge gained, entrepreneurs look through to position their products or services to good advantage in the reckoning of the customers. For instance, Amazon.Com gears up to eliminate customer issues concerning the confidentiality of transactions. The software company, Ashton-Tate, named its first product dBASE II, even though it was the first version, to work around customer biases against the first version of anything. Still more, intangibles like convenience, reliability, quality, upgradability, service and ease of use, provide irresistible incentives that speak to customers better than a cheaper product does. In the breast of these intangibles, entrepreneurial selling becomes quite effective. To hold good, entrepreneurs must target a specific group of customers to meet their needs. Sam Walton started Wal–Mart in the wake of targeting smaller, rural communities considered unprofitable by the then big retailers. In the grain of being significantly different, companies usher themselves into the minds of the customers and occupy a unique position there. This position translates into a viable share of the market for the entrepreneur and testifies to the true success of entrepreneurial selling.
Trust is a crucial element in the product or service that customers patronize. Customer loyalty is made good on trust. Smart entrepreneurs deliver on their promises and solidify the trust reposed on them by their customers. Successful companies are hallmarked by trusting customers. Reputation reflects how the company staff interacts with the customers. The impressions that companies create is based on the values that the top management and lower level employees demonstrate and the evidence of success. The good word of mouth that comes from satisfied customers highlight the credibility of a company and helps to recruit other patrons. Thus, galvanising the culture of a company to honour worthy promises to its customers comes to the mark of effective entrepreneurial selling. Trustworthiness on the part of the entrepreneur is what secures to him or her the trust and loyalty of the customers.
For a purpose that not only adds real value and utility but also comfort for their customers, smart entrepreneurs attune themselves to the range of customer expectations and surround their products and services with all the relevant support, features, acts and information. Amazon’s easy to navigate website, simple purchasing process, confidentiality and security are part of what it sells with its tangible products. The totality is what customers buy. Smart entrepreneurs don’t just sell; they build relationships with their customers. Entrepreneurial selling thrives in admittance to customer expectations.
