Saturday 15 December 2018

Sell and deliver

We start off as technicians.


But pretty soon most business owners need to become good at selling. Being good at making your product or delivering your service isn't enough. You need to attract new customers and sell to them.

It's sometimes difficult to separate the selling from the doing. Whilst closing the deal a business owner might also be worrying about how they are going to deliver it. That's not a good thing if your anxiety is visible to the potential customer. They want total confidence that you have the capability to deliver. They are not too bothered about the 'How?'

There is a quote from Richard Branson which always sticks with me, 'If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later'.

That's fine and is good sense if you have resources at your disposal to deliver on your promises after making the sale. For a smaller business, that can be a challenge. The smarter business owners will have some back up. Some additional resources they can call on at peak times to get a job done. They can also get stuck in themselves.

But every now and then, despite their best efforts they may not quite have the capacity to take on a new sale and meet the customer's expectations. However painful, the best policy then may be to say, 'No'.

That's incredibly difficult. To turn away business and an opportunity that may not come around again quickly.

I've seen the consequences of overtrading several times - where businesses take on more than they can manage. It can be catastrophic and even terminal.

So I think Richard's adage of 'Go for it' is right but tread carefully and make sure you can deliver on your promises.

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