Here’s a scary statistic for you: according to the US Small Business Administration, about a third of new small businesses fail within their first two years, and a total of 56% fail within their first five years. Any gambler will tell you: those odds suck.
And why do so many new businesses fail? Studies say that this high rate of failure is primarily because businesses have a difficult time making a profit in their first year and run out of capital. I disagree. I say it’s because most business owners are afraid to sell.
Have a look around you at any business mixer geared toward small business owners and entrepreneurs and what do you see? A room full of intelligent, industrious, charming people interacting and exchanging contact information via the business card swap. They’re here to “make contacts” and “expand their network”, and they are, for the most part, pretty good at working the room and meeting new people.
Fast forward to the following morning, and what do you see? Those same intelligent, industrious, charming business people, sorting through all those business cards and putting the information into their databases and CRM programs, flagging them for follow up, then moving on to other “more important” tasks.
A couple of days go by and the CRM program pops up an alert to follow up on those contacts, but they hit the snooze button because something “more important” has their attention at the moment. A few more days go by; the alert pops up again, and is again ignored in favor of ”more important” work. Then a few weeks have passed and they say to themselves “Well, I’ll feel pretty silly calling them now, after so much time has passed…maybe I’ll just look for them at the next mixer and re-connect. I’ve got more important things to do right now, anyways.”
In the sales profession, we call this kind of behavior “call avoidance”, and it’s caused by fear: fear of rejection, fear of looking stupid, fear of not knowing what to say, fear of what other people will think of them, fear of all kinds of silly and irrational things. The obvious cure for this disease, of course, is to pick up the phone and start selling.
“Now wait just a minute,” they cry, with a look of panic in their eyes. “I didn’t get into business so I could become a (hissed through clenched teeth) salesperson!”
Well then, my friend, you didn’t really get into business. After all, if you’re not selling something, isn’t it just a hobby? Here’s a reality check for you: selling is the most important part of every business, because without sales your business joins the 56% mentioned in the first paragraph of this post.
So how can you get over your fear and start selling? Let’s chat about that in our next post…
Are You Afraid to Sell? » The Motivation 101 Blog…
Will your business be one of the 56% that fail within the first five years? That will depend a lot on whether you can overcome your fear of selling……
Great googlymooglies! I want every single self-employed person on the planet to read those words.
Had I gotten over my fear of selling 15 years ago, I’d be retired by now. That’s not hyperbole. I was in the right place at the right time in this web explosion, and the thing that kept me from being an overnight success in the early days of the web was not technical ability, it was business ability—specifically, the ability and desire to sell my services.
Maybe it’s 15 years too late, but, man, I’m sure glad I know you, Jerry. My life is more than my business, but I love what I do, and it’s the vehicle that’s going to provide my family with the life to which we intend to become accustomed.
Conquering my fear of selling (still working on it!) is the key that’s gonna make it happen.