Have You Taken Any Sales Training?

One major problem in the 'work at home' and small business world is the 'my way is good enough' attitude. If you ask most of the struggling small business owners if they have taken any management or Sales Training they will usually answer 'no.'

But, we all have horror stories of poor sales people. I remember one in particular. We were at a trade show. He walked around putting his business card in every one's pockets. We were waiting to network with a business owner who had actually paid for a booth at the trade show.

This guy must have seen us standing there with nothing to do and 'pounced.' I say pounced because nothing else accurately describes what he did. He never once asked us about our business, our needs, if we had any problems he could solve.

All he did was talk about how much money he was making, how great he was, how great his product was (it was an air purifier) and what an opportunity he stumbled on. It didn't take us long before we were trying to find ways to escape. We never did get to talk to the business we did want to deal with.

The worst part was, he must have decided that used car salespeople had the best sales techniques. Every time he was within 10 feet of us that day he said 'hi' and greeted us as if we were long lost relatives. He introduced us to people and used our name to validate his credibility.

And, he was a true believer in the term 'no never means no' because we said no very firmly, several times, but he just changed tactics.

The fact is - you can't teach yourself. The business world has a code of ethics that are learned, and a pattern of operating. New self-starters always identify themselves within moments of entering the business community - costing themselves sales and potential clients.

Next time you want to go it alone and do it 'your way' just think of this story and ask yourself what the true cost of 'not' taking a course is.