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Follow on TwitterI’m often asked to suggest business opportunities that “don’t require any selling”, the short answer is no. The longer answer is why? I ask why because every business (and a lot of what you do outside of your business) requires you to sell. So if you’re already selling regularly why are you afraid of selling in business? The problem is we tend to associate sales with unsavoury hard sell techniques and pushy salesmen and forget that there is nothing inherently wrong with selling. In fact it’s a vital activity for any business – without sales you don’t have a business!
So for those of you that hate the idea of “selling” please consider the following scenarios:
- You see meet a nice girl/boy/man/woman who you fancy getting to know better, you’d like to ask them for a date.
- You fancy going out for dinner tonight, but your partner doesn’t.
- Your family is discussing where to go on holiday, you want to persuade them to go with your choice of holiday.
- You’re driving to visit your parents and the kids want to stop for lunch, you want them to wait for 20 minutes as you’re nearly there.
- You’re feeling charitable so you’ve agreed to help a charity collect money this weekend.
- You’ve got a great business idea and you want the bank manager to provide you a business loan.
- You’ve decided to open an shop and having found the ideal location you need to get the landlord to agree to lease it to you.
- You need some stock for your new online business so you need to phone suppliers and get them to agree to supply you.
- You’ve decided to get an MBA before starting your own business and you’re filling in the application form for a top business school, if you’re successful they will invite you for an interview.
If you haven’t already guessed, they all require you to sell. The only difference is you’re selling an idea, a vision or yourself. Now whilst I don’t suggest you use the high pressure selling techniques demonstrated in the movie Boiler Room, in the scene below he does have a point.
So no, there aren’t any business opportunities for which no selling is required. That shouldn’t put you off however and if it does, then starting your own business is probably not a good idea.
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This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
I’d agree every business needs to sell even if you do not realise you are selling.
I agree, thing that gets me is some people are actually afraid of selling! No sales No money!
I used to be a sales rep, People used to hide behind there curtain’s after seeing me lol
Well said. Many people deride selling because they can’t, they won’t or they are too scared too. Problem with that is that selling is the number one most important business skill.
Without sales, there is no business. Period. Every business owner, leader and director needs to know how to sell – themselves, their company, their products and their vision.
The Boiler Room is a great film about, you’re right, hard sell. It’s a good film but it’s not one to copy your sales tactics from…
Selling in the C21 is about honesty, about integrity and about adding value to your clients and your clients’ businesses. Top salespeople bear little or no resemblance to the characters in The Boiler Room…
But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great film and that there aren’t some great tips in there…
Gavin,
Thanks for the comment. Sadly it’s not just films like Boiler Room, but modern reality TV does salesmen (and even entrepreneurs) few favours.
Talking of which it must nearly be time for another series of yours on The [Sales] Apprentice…
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