By Dr Wilfred Isak April
LAST Saturday I was once again blessed to join former graduates of the University of Namibia on campus for the annual reunion. Guess what?
It was interesting to note that Mr Innocentio Verde (Vice Chairperson of the Unam Council) spoke about how we as Namibians sell ourselves short.
This is also the key point I want to drive across in today’s conversation. Even if you have been running a business for a while now, and you are experienced in business, understanding the rationale behind selling won’t do you any harm.
So please take out your notepads right now and write down the following: My first point is, if you have a business idea – just start – stop procrastinating.
Just start. If right now you are in a position, you have an idea or something you would like to do: Do something about it.
Once you make a choice to start a business, you have to learn to sell and get good at it. What is the arrogance of selling?
By now most of the readers will say never to take no for an answer. However, the arrogance is that most people assume that after the product has been manufactured it will sell itself.
People simply feel that they do not have to beg people. In addition people say I don’t have to sell my product, that is someone else’s job.
That is the arrogance among many Namibians, that selling is somehow beneath them. It is a terrible way to be, because you are the owner of the business. You are the only person that is truly responsible for making your business survive.
You know what? Anyone else can just walk out the door and get another job. You are the only one, who truly 100 percent invested in the outcome.
No one else cares about your own business as much as you do. One thing I have noticed in Namibian small business owners is that as soon as they can delegate sales to someone else, they remove themselves from sales.
Business owners seem to be just interested in creating the product and that is called avoidance activity. Entrepreneurs are willing to do everything except the one thing they are really supposed to be doing – selling.
Let’s bring this discussion down to our daily lives. When we learn about the law of attraction, what do people generally do? While we go for a haircut, buy new clothes; learn more about a particular subject. You should probably go meet more people in your area or perhaps whiten your teeth and learn more about places to go to in Windhoek to meet people of your interest. All of this is just avoidance activity, that’s all it is. I am not implying that these things are not important but it is just the icing on the cake. Business owners do that for not doing the one thing, which is walking up to someone, risking rejection and sell the product or service. Selling is the only thing which is genuinely going to make a difference. You perhaps know the 20/80 percent rule. Twenty percent of what you do is going to get you 80 percent of the results. Most Namibians do 80 percent and get 20 percent of the results. In any business 20 percent sales will get you 80 percent of the results.
I know business owners who get into a panic territory, because they don’t have customers, when they realize that the business is going down. Suddenly they go out and pitch themselves as if their lives depend on it.
Once they get a new client and exhale (now I can breathe – sound familiar?).
Ok I have a little bit of cash flow now, let me find new office space or buy a Lexus. I encourage you to identify what are those things which will give you the luxury, and stop thinking that you are above selling.
No matter how big your business gets, you will never be above selling.
Dr Wilfred Isak April is a Unam graduate and holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship (New Zealand). He lectures on Leadership, Organizational Behaviour and Entrepreneurship at the University of Namibia.