Summary of Principles Chapters 1 thru 16
Last chapter I told you I was going to summarize the principals
of being an entrepreneur in these first 16 chapters.
PRINCIPAL 1: Trust your instincts to connect you to that
infinite intelligence available to you.
Over and over and over in my life I have learned that when you
are trying to create a business you will run into seemingly
unsurmountable odds. But if you want to be an entrepreneur you
can't stop.
There are many ways you can deal with unsurmountable odds, but
one is a great gift from (fill in your blank here)__________,
(eg. God, Universe, Goddess, infinite intelligence, or whoever
or whatever you believe to be a supreme force in the universe).
This gift almost always works once you yourself have tried to do
it on your own in every concievable way. You have to think of
every possible solution, but once you have exhausted your
resources, put the question you need answered to your
subconsious mind and then forget about it.
Edison did this constantly. When he was stumped he would take a
cat nap and awake with the answer.
You have heard I am sure many times people saying, "I just woke
up and had the answer." Think about it.
So a very important principal is to trust your instincts.
Your instincts will guide you if you have done your share of the
hard work in trying to solve the problem yourself. But at some
point you have to let go of it and just wait for the answer.
PRINCIPAL 2: Be open minded in looking for what people want to
buy and how to present it to them.
The next thing I learned was to test different sales approaches
and different products until you find out what it is people
want.
It is much easier to sell products people want then to try to
convince them to buy something they don't want.
It is also important to get the feedback personally. Since I did
most of my sales as a child going door to door, I got to see
exactly how people responded to different products and sales
approaches.
Books are great to help you learn different sales closes or
presentations. And there are tons of opportunities on what to
sell. But until you test them out yourself you will not know
what works for you and you need to experience people's reaction
to the products.
Don't be afraid to test out different products or services until
you find the one that gets you AND your customers excited. If
you sell products or services that excite you, and your
customers are receptive to them, you have a winner.
PRINCIPAL 3:
Persistance wins out in the long run. Remember how I returned to
the fellow that turned me down every week or more for over a
year? Eventually I found the service he wanted and the
presentation. Just don't quit.
Remember how I eventually took over all my competitors lawn
mowing jobs by must persistantly being available to his
customers? Just don't quit.
This does not necessary mean to hound a person to death, but you
should politely follow up as long as possible until they make it
clear not to contact them anymore.
Also the persistance of performing your sales routines is
important. Keep going to new prospects, keep perfecting your
products and services, just keep on and keep on. Dont' stop
I read a story this week about the man that invented Velcro back
in 1955. He was sure that people would want this product. He
worked on it for 6 years and lost everything he had working on
it until finally he ended up in a cabin in the mountains still
trying to solve the problem.
He finally did solve the problem and by 1958 was selling 50
million dollars worth per year of his velcro invention.
Thomas Edison found 10,000 ways a light bulb would not work
before finding the right way.
Being an Entrepreneur requires a lot of persistances. It is not
all fun and games, but the rewards can be extravagant if you do
not quit.
PRINCIPAL 4: You cannot hear them say no.
When someone tells you no, just consider it another learned
lesson. It is not a judgement against you, it simply means you
did not have the product or service or presentation that person
at that time needed.
But that does not mean you will not eventually find the product
or service or presentation that person will need. Just don't
give up and dont' say no.
Just go on to the next person and keep going through all your
prospects. Check back with the people that told you no in a fair
amount of time with another offer or another product or another
presentation.
They said no before to a different offer or product or
presentation, not the next one you are offering.
PRINCIPAL 5: Be gentle.
The only way people are going to let you contact them over and
over is if you are polite, gentle, and respectful.
Don't be pushy. Don't be rude. Don't interrupt.
ALWAYS LISTEN. Always CARE about your prospect.
Always try to see how you can help your prospect.
I will be presenting more principals in how to be an
entrepreneur over the next chapters, first in story form and
then in summary.
Thank you for being my reader!!
You can read all the chapters of "How To Be an Entrepreneur" by
going to http://salessuccessmagazin
e.com. These stories are copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick
Sr. 1995 thru 2005. Any person using this article must publish
it without modification and include authors bio and links.