Building an entrepreneurial “toolkit” becomes a business owner’s guide in walking on the path to success and prosperity. The entrepreneur must find strategies that will help sell his/ her products and/ or services to the consumers, which is why it is vital for selling skills to be a resource. LAEDA held a seminar on Building Your Entrepreneurial Selling Skill because this will help entrepreneurs reach their full potential and have a successful business. The seminar’s agenda explored the concepts presenting vs. selling, mastering the sales process, building credibility and rapport with customers, standing out from the crowd, and using effective tools to measure success and boost results.
Jamila Powell, Program Director- Women’s Business Center, explained presenting vs. selling. “Selling is like pushing your products/ services, whereas presenting is informing others about your product/ service benefit. The way your brand speaks to your consumer is important”. Ms. Powell continued by asking the question, “What is your secret sauce or the appeal that brings people in?”
As entrepreneurs, it is important to be on the channels where your consumers are while using targeted messages to promote brand (including a reference to the secret sauce). You must stand out from the crowd and know where you are at all times in the process of building the relationship with your consumer.
“The joy your products bring to people informs how they feel about you, your business, and your brand,” a LAEDA alumna, Judy Money Shappell, owner and operator of Boogie- Eyed Creeps LLC communicates. For this reason, it is crucial to create a story that tells about your business and delivers the value that draws consumers in.
“When you communicate with your consumers keep in mind that once you create that connection, you should capture their information right away,” Jamila explained, “Walk away knowing what your next steps will be in order to hold the client’s attention and begin building the relationship.”
In order to build those valuable long-term consumer relationships, entrepreneurs must know how to measure the effectiveness of their different sales techniques. Jamila left the entrepreneurs with some resourceful time management and metric measurement tools, including Outlook, Google, Sugar, Zoho, and Hootsuite.com. In addition, she offered books on the sales process including How to Master the Art of Selling and How to Become a Rainmaker. Measuring those results, tracking progress, and re-evaluating failures will allow entrepreneurs to build their entrepreneurial selling skills.
The next Alumni Connections Initiative will take place on January 10 – save the date!