We have to feel that we are the best at what we do in our marketplace – the center of the target – so that our clients will share this confidence and trust in us
We need to understand that our aging in place business – regardless of the form of that business and the nature of the services we provide – is nevertheless a business. As such, being in business – whether it’s design, health care, construction, assistive devices, durable equipment, consulting, or some other product or service that we use to create aging in place solutions for our clients – means that we are in sales. No business, including ours, can survive without sales. The sooner we learn to love sales and accept that we must have them to remain in business, the more successful and fun our businesses will become.
Still, there may be some people who have not embraced the idea of selling – those who don’t want to engage their potential clients and customers and create the transaction. The sale must happen if we are going to serve our client, but as long as there is else in the organization who can make the sale, this will do. It’s essential that sales happen.
Being in business means being in sales. It’s how we fund and finance the rest of our company — regardless of whether it’s just us or several other people and regardless of the nature of our business or service or how many people we intend to serve.
It might be our own business where we are the sole practitioner, or we might be the sales manager, vice president, or some other officer of a larger company. The size of the company doesn’t matter, and the number of people in the organization – from just ourselves on up – likewise doesn’t matter. Everyone in the organization is a salesperson — regardless of actual titles or job descriptions.
Just the mere mention of the word “sales” to some people is uncomfortable — especially for those who don’t traditionally think of themselves as making a presentation with a potential customer or client in a face-to-face setting or over the telephone or through an email dialogue, but we need to move past this if we want to grow our businesses. We can’t connect with our clients and have them engage us if we don’t make the sale.
Think of a sale as an agreement between us and our client for us to help them with a specific task, product, or service for a specified payment. When they are in agreement with the terms, we have a sale. This all results from a conversation, so we should take the pressure off and just have discussions with potential clients about how we can help them and what is involved to do that.
It all starts with a belief in ourselves and our abilities. After we are convinced that we provide an outstanding value proposition to the marketplace, it’s just a matter of conveying that belief and confidence that we have to our potential customers and clients.
This brings us to the most crucial sale we will make each day regardless of what type of business we are in and the type of product, service, or solution we are offering. We must be sold on ourselves and what we are providing. We must believe that we have a valuable contribution to make to the lives of the people in our marketplace. If we don’t or can’t believe in ourselves and have confidence in what we are doing, how do we expect to convey this to the public? This is even more important when we have serious competition for what we are providing. Now, we still must believe in ourselves but additionally believe that we provide the best solutions or alternatives for the public of anyone in our market they might consider.
This all begins with being sold on our business every day. This is a continuous endeavor. If we ever go a day without scheduling an appointment with a client (the first step toward making an eventual sale), we should at least have the confidence that we made a sale to each person in your organization – starting with ourselves at the top of that list.
This is why we will come back tomorrow, and the day after that – us and anyone else that is in our organization. We cannot succeed without an unbridled confidence and enthusiasm for what we are doing and the products, services, and solutions we are providing in our marketplace. If we ever have any doubts about our abilities or our effectiveness, we need to immediately reclaim that waning confidence and get back on top of our game.
If we aren’t totally convinced that we provide the best solutions for aging in place needs in our market, it’s going to be hard to have our clients believe that we do – and we must have this to remain in business and be successful.