{"id":43359,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/what-kind-of-salesperson-are-you-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:00","slug":"what-kind-of-salesperson-are-you-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/what-kind-of-salesperson-are-you-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What kind of salesperson are you? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"feature-three-salespeople-thumb\"<\/div>\n

\"feature-three-salespeople-thumb\"The ability to sell can make or break a start-up. If a business in its early years can\u2019t sell its products or services, it hasn\u2019t got much chance of success.<\/p>\n

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So what\u2019s the most effective way of selling when you\u2019re growing a business? Here are some of the common approaches to selling and their pros and cons.<\/p>\n

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1. The hard seller<\/h2>\n

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David Cunningham is the founder of an online start-up community called ipitch.com.au.<\/p>\n

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He says under no circumstances should a start-up use the old school, hard sell approach.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis simply does not work in the 21st century,\u201d he says. \u201cNo one wants to be sold to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cunningham is also not convinced other popular sales approaches \u2013 the salesperson that will act like your best friend to win the sale and the charismatic charmer \u2013 work for early stage ventures.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOn the plus side, these are two ways you can build up trust, but some people will spot the lack of authenticity so the sale will not happen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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He says the understated approach is possibly a better option for a start-up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you\u2019re a start-up getting sales is about educating the market about what you\u2019re doing. The idea is to become the thought leader in your field and the sales will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut the drawback of this approach is that it requires patience and cash to survive as closing a deal can be a slow process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2. The problem solver<\/h2>\n

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Simon Harris, managing director of The Business Coaching Centre, has identified four types of salespeople \u2013 but only one is suitable to use in a start-up.<\/p>\n

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His salespeople profiles include the product pusher, the order taker who waits for an order to come through, the over-seller who promises the world but rarely delivers and the problem solver.<\/p>\n

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He says people are much more inclined to buy from problem solvers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you are a product pusher, an order taker or an over-seller you will die \u2013 but if you are a problem solver you will survive,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

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He uses someone starting up a personal training business as an example.<\/p>\n

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The business owner could try to sell his or her products and services based on their own level of fitness, or based on the industry awards they have achieved, or even by bullying people into working with a personal trainer.<\/p>\n

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But a more effective approach will be to interview people about why they want to use a personal trainer \u2013 perhaps to lose weight, or reduce the risk of diabetes, or to increase their confidence \u2013 and sell the business based on providing a solution to meet those needs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe trainer can then set out a training and eating plan and set weight goals to solve the problem,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

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3. The emotionally intelligent seller<\/h2>\n

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Echoing this sentiment, sales expert Aaron Sansoni says it\u2019s not so much about the personality type of the business owner or salesperson.<\/p>\n

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Rather, he explains successful selling in a start-up is much more about understanding your buyers\u2019 personalities and motivations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou need to understand what your buyer responds to and change your approach accordingly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn our training we have identified a number of different buyer profiles, including assertive, analytical, negative, timid and \u2018how much?\u2019 buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe idea is to understand the full profile of your buyer and match your selling approach to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sansoni uses someone searching for a cosmetic surgeon as an example. It would seem logical for a start-up cosmetic surgery clinic to hire people with a great deal of compassion so they can empathise with potential clients.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut this approach won\u2019t work if someone is a \u2018how much?\u2019 buyer and has contacted the clinic after first visiting a number of others and is really only interested in finding out the price of treatments,\u201d says Sansoni.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo if you\u2019re running a start-up don\u2019t focus so much on the type of salesperson you are trying to hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough this can work if you operate in a very niche market, it\u2019s better to hire people who have high emotional intelligence and the ability to identify and work with the buyer types.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The ability to sell can make or break a start-up. If a business in its early years can\u2019t sell its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}