As an entrepreneur you’ll be expected to wear a lot of different hats, the most famed of which is the trailblazer cap. You’re expected to break new ground and offer the audience something that’ll improve their lives. While that’s true, being an entrepreneur is more about sales. Fundamentally, you’re still about selling a product. Here are five reasons you should put as much, if not more, focus on your sales skills.
1. Businesses are Customer-focused
Everything a successful entrepreneur does revolves around the customer. Product development, marketing campaigns, customer service – and these and more revolve around your target market’s preferences. Fundamentally, it’s less about your ideas and more about what your customers need and want.
Customer feedback becomes more important, placing more value on the sales part of your responsibilities rather than your ideas. You could have the best ideas, but that doesn’t mean your target market will actually be interested. Being known for having lots of ideas can be exciting, but it’s not about you. It’s about your customers. Salespeople are all about matching the product to customer needs.
2. Most Products are Improvements Rather Than Original Creations
The iPhone, one of the most ubiquitous items in the world today, is fundamentally an improvement of the phone. Instead of being tied to the wall, it’s portable, remembers numbers for you, and also functions as an organizer. It’s not introducing a completely new idea, it’s just making something people already know better. Arguably, even the car is just an improvement on the horse. Both get you from one place to another, but cars are faster and considerably more comfortable than a horse for long distances.
This isn’t a rare occurrence. Google was far from the first search engine but now it’s the most famous one. YouTube isn’t the first video streaming service and in fact began its life as a dating service. Success doesn’t have to come from something never before seen. It can easily come from improvement and innovation and more importantly, the ability to sell those ideas.
3. Revenue Keeps Companies Afloat, Not Ideas
Ideas are important to any company. Your journey as an entrepreneur could have begun from a flash of inspiration. But it’s not enough to put food on the table and it won’t keep your company afloat. Revenue and income will.
You can spend all your time finding ways to innovate and improve your product, but if you can’t sell it, the company will fail. Without sales, there’s no cash flow. This isn’t to say you can focus entirely on selling the product. You’ll still need a unique selling point and constant innovation to stay relevant. It just means you can’t spend your days thinking of the next best thing and you’ll have figure out how to actually generate leads.
Whether your business is thriving and you can’t keep up, or you are waiting on clients to pay their invoices, Universal Funding can help your growing company. Call us at 800.405.6035 or complete our rate form today to learn more about invoice factoring and how it can improve your company’s cash flow.
4. Branding and Marketing are More Effective Than the Idea
The fact is most products are functionally the same. Samsung and Apple, if you take out third-party app support, are essentially making the same product – mobile phones that do more than just make calls. What sets them apart is branding.
Branding and marketing have a greater impact on your success as an entrepreneur than the idea itself. It’s why you should be strategic when it comes to creating your marketing plan. Your product’s appeal means nothing if it doesn’t make the customer feel good or if they don’t trust your company.
5. Sales Encompasses More of the Business Than Ideas
The idea is just a small part of the business. It’s a critical part and the organization wouldn’t exist without it, but the vast majority of your work will revolve around making the product appealing to not only your target market, but to potential partners and investors. The same skills needed to become a good salesperson are also instrumental in convincing people to join your team.
Being an entrepreneur is more about sales than ideas because you’re still running a business. A business by any other name is still trying to generate revenue to allow for expansion and product development. This shouldn’t dissuade you. Knowing this will allow you to focus your efforts and temper your expectations appropriately, which should help you succeed.
About Universal Funding
Universal Funding is a private funding source that has funded thousands of businesses and more than $2 billion since 1998. We turn your accounts receivable into the funding you need through invoice factoring and can have capital in your hands in a matter of days.
