Will you pay $$$ for my experience, knowledge and skills

[AgentMail]

Hi,

Please do not take my comments as being offensive, I hope to be constructive...

Your list of skills would read like 1,000 other resumes currently doing the rounds for any typical sales/management role.

If you mean to start up in business, you need to get out of the mentality that people will simply ask you what you can provide and pay you for it. Sure, when you have a number of years and clients under your belt maybe, but from the outset you are going to have to go to them and tell them why they need you.

As others have said, you need to specialise in an area, sales and marketing is fine, but what exactly in that space or you going to do? Sales training, marketing consultant, sales contractor...? The list in those two fields is endless, and is very competitive - you need to come up with a different angle that works for you, based on your experience.

For example, if you sales experience has been collected in the area of selling office consumables, perhaps use that as a starting market. You will have more credibility than just being a general 'I have done sales therefore can sell anything' type of business.

You also need to define your target audience very specifically. If you intend on doing this part time only, you need to think how your target audience will cope with this - if you are targeting large corporates, they probably wont, but if you are offering sales coaching via distance, maybe it could.

Everyone on here will have different opinions and great advice for you, but I think it is important for you to come up with the foundations yourself, as only you know what areas you can add most value to.

Hope this helps

[Pace]

Hi Johannp,
I am still new to this Self-Employed way of life and it's difficult to define what you do quite specifically from the start. I've only just in the past couple of weeks found that I am gradually finding a niche for myself - where as for the past 6 months my "resume" would have read like your 10 points, but I'm sure what you and I do is actually very different.
I totally agree with what Harry said about although you may be great at X, what is there a need for out there - perhaps your Y skill is in more demand.
I'm sure you'll find as you go along that your niche or specialist skills will become more defined for you purely by the clients that you find yourself attracted to work with.
Best of Luck.
Rachel Abdy

[Johannp]

great feed back all feef back is good feed back rather then starting on my own i would.love to add my flair and skills

[Khalid Adam]

I beg to differ. There are tons of people who know their products inside out but can't sell their way out of a paperbag

Why? because people don't buy products. They buy solutions to their problems. Too many salespeople who don't understand who their customer is and what concerns they have.

The successful salespeople are like doctors. They are more interested in the customer pain and diagnosing the problem before even thinking about a possible solution .

On the other hand, the average salesperson is only concerned about slamming solutions without thinking about the customer's hopes and fears.

Imagine if you visited a doctor and said you felt weak. Next thing you know, you are handed a prescription for antibiotics. How do you feel about this? This is what the average salesperson does and that's why they fail and then say that selling is hard or blame the customer.

What if you were allergic to certain antibiotics? what if you just needed panadol or something else? What if you had diabetes and didn't know?

We need to spend more time on the problem just like a doctor before offering a solution. A professional/successful salesperson also understands when to refer to a specialist even if it's the competition.

Originally Posted by Johannp

With a bit of product Knowledge any thing can be sold!!!. But its also up the vendor / Customer to be realistic too.

[Johannp]

Hi Khalid,
I agree with you...

A typically sales person will always say this when there sales volumes are low "oh my industry is quiet" or its just so competitive out there.

Its very important to see what the customer wants or there concerns but there are also alot of customers out there who dont even know what they want etc.

"Imagine if you visited a doctor and said you felt weak. Next thing you know, you are handed a prescription for antibiotics"

Unfourtantley there are allot of doctors who work like this....

cheers

[Khalid Adam]

Hi Johannp,

If we are to be above average, should we expect the customer to know what they want or should we diagnose their problem first and find out if they are committed to fix the problem and then offer the right product?

any time it appears that the customer doesnt know what they want is a indication that we are not doing our job in :

1. identifying problem

2. agitate the problem to communicate severity and consequence for not getting it fixed today - no hard selling here.

3. Offering a solution (after they beg you to fix their problem)

in my view, it is not the job of the customer to know what they want. That is what they are paying me for - think consultation.

In my experience, we are too product focused instead of customer focused and this comes across quite strongly to the prospect. They know that all we want to do is sell instead of solve.

Think like the top medical professionals like brain surgeons who will perform all types of tests and assements before they allow you to give them lots of money to solve your problem.

Originally Posted by Johannp

there are also alot of customers out there who dont even know what they want etc.

"Imagine if you visited a doctor and said you felt weak. Next thing you know, you are handed a prescription for antibiotics"

Unfourtantley there are allot of doctors who work like this....

cheers

[Phillip P]

Originally Posted by NathanB

I have to agree and disagree - I completely agree their is a market for talented people that can drive results how ever, quick fix business is becoming more and more predominant amongst the SME's just trying to stay afloat or start up in this tough economy. This is why Daily Deal websites are so so successful (and SOOO expensive).

Opportunity 2 - Get a your product on a daily deal website (free) - sell a S**T load.

Pros: Short term success. Immediate cash flow. No upfront cost. They do all the work. You only pay for what you sell.
Cons: Cost you FAT chunk of your profit margin

.

You missed out on the pros that you would get exposed and gain LONG TERM CLIENTS for life if your services or product is worth its salt.

Its worth losing 100% of the product for me to have them as clients for 20 years and make 30-40K

[NathanB]

Exactly! Great point - If you were to operate a daily deal promotion that is cost neutral and then retain even a small percentage of those customers as long term repeat business you have essentially done what you would have paid a marketing expert to do for free.

[Phillip P]

exactly!