Are you approaching small local businesses (chiropractors, salons, health practitioners,
acupuncturists, etc.) to ask them to carry your products or services?
If you knew what every small business wanted, wouldn’t that help you get in the door?
Great insights about what all small businesses want, from our friend Seth Godin. If you can help your
small businesses get the one thing she wants (more customers and more sales), you’ll make your own sale. Check it out.
“How to get a job with a small company…
“Most advice about job seeking is oriented around big companies. The notion of a standard resume, of mass mailings, of dealing with the HR department–even the idea of interviews–is all built around the Fortune 500.
“Alas, the Fortune 500 has been responsible for a net loss in jobs over the last twenty years. All the growth (and your best chance to get hired) is from companies you’ve probably never heard of.
And when the hirer is also the owner, the rules are very different.
“1. Learn to sell. Everyone has sold something, some time, even if it’s just selling your mom on the need for a nap when you were three years old. A lot of people have decided that they don’t want to sell, can’t sell, won’t sell, but those same people need to understand that they’re probably not going to get a job doing anything but selling.
Small businesses always need people who can sell, because selling pays for itself. It’s not an expense, it’s a profit center.
“2. Learn to write. Writing is a form of selling, one step removed. There’s more writing in business today than ever before, and if you can become a persuasive copywriter, you’re practically a salesperson, and even better, your work scales.
“3. Learn to produce extraordinary video and multimedia. This is just like writing, but for people who don’t like to read. Even better, be sure to mix this skill with significant tech skills. Yes, you can learn to code. The fact that you don’t feel like it is one reason it’s a scarce skill.
When you approach a small business looking to have them buy your products from you, figure out
how to present it so that it becomes obvious to the business owner that she might get more
customers or bigger customers, if she buys from you (point 1 above). She already knows YOU want to sell your stuff.
So now, before you go over there, figure out how her buying your goods will help her sell more of her HER stuff – her products or services – to her customers, clients, or patients. Or how it will help her get
new customers or clients.
Make sense?
