Sales--The Key to Success in Any Business
By Geoffrey Stebbins

Sales are a critical element in any business. If the business owner is not able to sell his product or service, no income is generated and no money made. This is elementary. What is often not understood is that the personality and character of the owner will absolutely affect the amount of sales he is able to achieve.

In order to achieve the maximum amount of sales, the prospective owner's personality should be properly matched to an opportunity that will most successfully take advantage of his talents, skills and personality.

A person who feels he lacks strong sales ability should look for a franchise that has a good merchandising or marketing program. Conversely, a person who does have a strong sales ability should look for a franchise that will capitalize on his particular strengths. There are many different types of selling, and each one takes a different type of personality. It is common to confuse direct selling with prospecting for clients. These are, in fact, two distinctly different functions.

Most people do not care for the prospecting function, as it requires unsolicited interfacing with others to promote their service or product. It takes a person whose character is able to handle rejection, which many sensitive people react negatively to.

However, if a person has the character traits necessary to be able to prospect, can withstand rejection by learning not to take the rejection personally and enjoys meeting people, then he is equipped with an advantage above and beyond the norm. This advantage enables him to select a franchise which can capitalize on these traits.

After a business owner has identified a potential customer, the prospect has to be sold on the product or service. This is a separate function from the prospecting and requires the seller to be articulate and creative in order to overcome the prospect's objections and fears. The salesman must have a sincere belief in the quality and viability of his product or service, and he has to paint a picture in the mind of the prospective buyer of why he should buy that product or service.

We see, therefore, both prospecting and face-to-face selling require certain personality characteristics that determine a person's suitability to a particular type of business. What if an entrepreneur, looking to get into business, realizes he does not have the above character qualifications?

Certainly, this does not mean that he would be excluded from getting into a business. But it does mean that he has to chose a type of business that can compensate for those personality traits that he doesn't exhibit and capitalize on his positive characteristics.

OTHER METHODS

As stated earlier, every business requires sales, but these sales don't necessarily have to come by prospecting followed by face-to-face selling. A doctor practicing his profession must also run an efficient business, which requires selling. However, until recently his ethics bared him from prospecting and face-to-face selling. He built his practice (business) by selling through public relations--in his case, a good "bedside manner."

A doctor does not create sickness and hence cannot create a need for his service. Rather, a doctor must wait for his patient to become sick and, in the meantime, create a reputation that will result in patients calling him when they do become ill. That reputation is built through good bedside manner, which fosters confidence among his patients. That, in turn, results in satisfied patients referring the doctor to their friends and family who are sick and in need of a doctor.

Similarly, the same thing can be said about an automobile collision shop. The owner of the shop does not create the accident. However, if he is able to provide good customer relations and customer satisfaction, his customers will, in turn, refer their friends. In many businesses, good customer relations builds the business through referrals, rather then prospecting and face-to-face selling.

The area of public relations, which is the second avenue for creating sales, also becomes an important personality criteria for the franchise owner. The franchisee wishing to capitalize on public relations should have a friendly personality, a happy disposition and have a good rapport with people. He must choose a franchise opportunity that will highlight these skills and provide an environment where he can make more sales.

Let's say that these characteristics are still not present. Perhaps the prospective business owner should choose a business where customers are drawn into the store through good marketing and advertising and even special promotions. Here the prospective franchisee should seek a franchisor that can help to provide these services. Then the owner can rely on his administrative talents and not have to concentrate on the direct sales or even the public relations aspect of selling.

Clearly, then, a prospective franchisee must be honest with himself and properly evaluate his personality to achieve a clear understanding of the kind of industry and even business within that industry that is most suitable for him.

Sales being the life blood of any business, a complete understanding of how sales are achieved in that business is mandatory before anyone contemplates a franchise purchase. Even within the same industry, two franchise companies may have completely different marketing philosophies and levels of support. Understanding both the marketing philosophy and the types of support given to the franchisee is imperative to determine the prospective franchisee's suitability to that franchise.

SOME EXAMPLES

A good example of this can be found in both the sign industry and the printing industry. There are some sign or printing franchisors who are extremely commercially-industrially oriented. Therefore, in order to be able to do business with other businesses, one must be prepared to leave the sanctuary of one's own shop and visit the other business owners at their place of business. This is a case where the seller must go to the buyer.

If the seller is also good at prospecting, he would not have to rely upon the franchisor to provide him with methods and assistance in finding prospects. If the franchisee does not have this strength, he may have to rely upon a direct mail program or various promotions of the franchisor which would compensate for this lacking.

On the other hand, if the sign or printing franchisor's marketing thrust is more is more tailored towards the retail- consuming public, then it becomes a case of the buyer coming to the seller. The franchisee should be expected to have the personality which fits the public relations, i.e., he should be the friendly type. Here the franchisee should be looking for support from the franchisor for ways of getting people into his shop, such as through newspaper/radio advertising, special promotions, etc.

The store decor also becomes important for repeat sales and all aspects of merchandising. The potential franchisee looking at a retail product must check carefully into the ability of the franchisor to adequately train and properly display his merchandise.

Sales are imperative to any business and are the key to success. However, the power that turns that key to success is the personality, character and disposition of the franchisee. Choosing a franchise that is best-suited to your particular personality type can be the most important first step on your journey to franchise business ownership.