Best Practices - 2 #Startups #SMEs

For any Entrepreneur to succeed in a Startup/SME, one of the most important practices that he/she needs to inculcate and make pervasive (throughout the venture), is the art of selling or in other words the "Sales Mindset".

Most of us have a negative mindset about Sales; linking it to aggression, manipulation, rejection, exaggeration, pestering, pushing, lying etc.

However, we are all selling every day at every place wherever we are.

When we were kids, we were convincing our parents to buy us toys, sweets, books etc,. When we were at college, we were convincing some professors to be our guide for the Elective Projects. When we were dating our future partners, we were convincing them of our life-long partnerships. When we attended campus interviews, we were convincing the companies to hire us in the interviews. When we raised our kids, we were constantly selling them the values, habits & behavioral traits that they should ideally possess. When one had to relocate to a new city for a better job, one convinced his/her spouse about the prospects of the future career etc. We have always been selling throughout our lives and we will continue to do so in the future too.

Why should the "Selling Mindset" be pervasive throughout the organisation ?

Let us analyse the following :

• For a startup to get Investors, the Entrepreneur needs to "sell" his/her startup idea/product/MVP to them.
• For HR to attract good prospective candidates to the company, they need to sell the idea to them - "the company is a great place to work".
• For a Board to hire a new CEO, the CEO candidate needs to sell his Vision, Mission, Strategy & Execution Plan to them.
• For a JV/Merger to happen, both the companies need to sell their respective capabilities to one another.
• For a company to get channel partners, stockists, distributors etc, they need to sell the company's partnerships along with the offerings to them.
• For a factory to get its workers to go on an extra shift to increase production capacity, the management needs to sell the idea to the workers union by articulating the overall benefits.
• For a company to get its article printed in the media, the PR Team needs to sell the story to the media personnel.
• For a company to be on the top of the consumer mindset, the Marketing Team needs to position and sell the brand accordingly into the minds of the consumers.
• For a company to win a customer deal, the Sales and Technical Team need to convince the customer on their ability to deliver.
• For a company to get a good bargain from its suppliers/vendors its Operations Department needs to sell the idea of long term profitable association.
• For a company to get working capital loans from a banker, the Finance Department need to convince the Bankers on their future P&L projections and estimates.
• For a company wanting to enter a new country, it needs to sell to that Government as to how they can add value to the people, market and economy.

An MBA in Marketing or a Certificate in Sales is not what is required to have the Sales Mindset in almost every employee in the company. By Sale Mindset, what I mean is that we need to embrace the art of selling - convincing, persuasion, positioning, marketing, presentation, storytelling, relationship, target orientation, - of our company to different stakeholders at all the times. This mindset needs to be instilled diligently in every department of the entity.

When I look back at all those companies that are successful, it invariably points to one common factor - the CEO, the company and its employees embrace the Sales Mindset.

The art of selling is a skill every business entity needs amongst its employees - it is more of a mindset than a set of rules. Weave the Sales Mindset into the fabric of the company so as to get Success always in every aspect of the company.