For some strange reason, I went into a Sales career. I do not believe I have a natural aptitude for sales, but I try to overcome that with hard work and the learning of effective sales techniques. I am a great believer that you can learn anything, and I mean anything.

Ok, no matter how much training I have, I could never run a 4-minute mile – I will grant you that. But genetics aside, you can learn to be better at a lot more things than you believe.

During my sales career, I was always confused at the distinction between sales and marketing. Are they the same? Is one a subset of the other? Do they overlap?

Let me clear up this distinction for you.

Sales is the process of talking with a customer and encouraging them to buy your product or service.

Marketing is the process of planning who to approach, how to approach them, analysing what needs they have and making strategic decisions about how best to promote to your target market. It encompasses sales, as the sales process ties directly into how you are promoting the product or service. In other words, selling is only one part of marketing.

For example,

Your marketing approach may be to go for market share by having a low price, in markets where there are low barriers to entry. Your sales process may refer to your low price as a benefit to the customer. Therefore, the sales approach has to blend with your marketing strategy. Furthermore, if your marketing strategy requires a telesales approach, this means your sales approach would be via phone. Likewise, your marketing approach has determined your sales avenue.

Both sales and marketing are interwoven with each other and both are vital to get right if you want your business to flourish. Fortunately (for you), I have made a lot of mistakes which you can learn from! There is no point in repeating my errors when you can follow what has proven to work and work well.

Its not quantity, its quality

When it comes to learning what works, sometimes it is the most simple of processes, sometimes it is not. The key point is it is quality and not quantity that counts. I could list endless sales and marketing techniques and you would think, “Wow! What value for money. Look at all this information!” Yet it would not help. You would be lost in a maze of techniques, most of which don’t work and others that just take up too much of your valuable time so you don’t get a reasonable return on the effort.

In this manual, I have told you what works. I have avoided padding, preferring to give you the techniques and enough background information to cement your learning. This should make it a faster read, more relevant and get you up and running quickly. If you refer to this manual for reference purposes, you won’t have to wade through a whole load of waffle to get the information you need.

Time is money and as a business owner, you don’t want to spend it reading lengthy books when you should be out there earning a fantastic living as an IT consultant.

Technical people’s greatest weakness

Most people who work with computers do so because they find them fascinating. For reasons unknown even to myself, my affinity with computers and anything hi-tech stretches a long way back. In the early 1980’s, I was often programming away until the early hours of the morning, trying to create games to sell in a national computer magazine. I found it exciting, interesting, and enjoyable.

In contrast, my experience suggests that the majority of technical people find business in general – sales and marketing in particular –goes against the grain of what they feel comfortable with. A programmer, for example, is an artist. You do not see their art unless you understand their coding, for clever coding is an art form in itself. You only see the end product, software, which may be functional, business like, even dull. Yet the underlying code can be an ingenious masterpiece, woven together better than the most exquisite tapestry.

Sometimes it is necessary for even the most technical of people to learn the basics of business. If you want to escape the 9 to 5 rat race and start your own business, you have no option. You will not survive otherwise. One of the most critical areas for both survival and success is sales and marketing.

In essence, I am saying that technical peoples biggest weakness is sales and marketing. The good news is that it is a learnable skill, like any other. So many misconceptions surround the area of sales and marketing that I suggest you blank your mind and start afresh. Prejudice will only hold you back, particularly if you believe the sales process is something designed to pull the wool over your customer’s eyes. In fact, conducted with ethics and integrity, an effective sales process encourages your customer to pursue the path that will benefit them the most. Agreed, it benefits the seller too but it is not a zero sum game. If done with honesty, both parties to the agreement win.