The most important skill any entrepreneur should have is the ability to sell.  This is directly related to being able to communicate effectively.

If you can’t sell yourself, your product, or your service you’re out of business b4 you even get started. Click To Tweet

Luckily, sales is a skill that can be taught and one can excel at with practice.  When creating a new business, the sales process actually starts at the beginning with customer discovery.

The number one reason people fear sales is because they fear rejection. Click To Tweet They fear ridicule of their idea, product, or service.  After all, it’s not easy to create a solution and present it to the world as this novel idea, a symbol of your hard work and time, and risk having people reject it.  

But how else are you going to find out if people are willing to pay for it?  

After all, it’s not easy to create a solution and present it to the world as this novel idea, a symbol of your hard work and time, and risk having people reject it. Click To Tweet

No matter what you see on the internet, inbound marketing, although it feels safe, is not the best way to go.  You have to actually talk to customers, even if they do reject your offering.  Don’t you want to know why and understand the real problems they’re really seeking to solve?  

No matter what you see on the internet, inbound marketing, although it feels safe, is not the best way to go. #marketing Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, having a numerical figure for the bounce rate of your website, number of readers of your blog posts, and the number of ‘likes’ on Facebook, can’t give you that information.  The only way to receive this information is by talking to prospective customers.  And the best thing to do is start talking to them BEFORE you start the business.  This is what we call CUSTOMER DISCOVERY.  It takes the scariness out of sales because your communication approach is more inquisitive than “salesy.”  You’re speaking with people to learn more about them (and of course, position yourself to sell to them later if it’s a good fit for your product/service).  

Luckily, sales is a skill that can be taught and one can excel at with practice. Click To Tweet

There’s a strategy behind doing all of this so that you don’t waste money and time going in the wrong direction with your new venture.  Customer discovery is one of the most critical, yet overlooked, components of starting a business.  Interested in learning more about how to complete the customer discovery process?  Here’s our free eBook for you to download.

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