What if you had your product in your hand and you had to sell it to some random stranger out of the blue. You haven’t prepared a marketing plan; there is no sales funnel.
It’s only you, your product and your prospect.
You have only a few seconds to capture their attention, and you are surrounded by other products that may steal those few precious seconds away from you.
You have all your self-doubt, you are not even sure how to start the conversation.
Other people would freeze; they would watch the client walk away.
But not you, you take a deep breath and walk towards your potential client, you talk nicely and say all the things that are cool about your product.
You can see their eyes shine a little bit and how they start to become more interested in what you are saying.
You keep going; you press for the sale. You are afraid they won’t buy. What if they think the price is too high? What if they don’t see any value in your product? What if they find something else that is better?
And suddenly, your fear disappear when they say: “Yes, I will take it.”
Now, you feel confident. A wave of happiness and relief hits your body. You just made a sale.
That’s what happened to me this past weekend. I supported my brother by selling his art at a comic convention.
I had to present my speech to dozens of different people. Different ages, tastes, and backgrounds; all sales were uncertain.
I got rejected an insane amount of times. Some attempts looked like closed sales but ended up on them walking away. Some others were quick successes, people who loved my brother’s work and wanted more of it.
It could have been so easy to give up after the first few rejections. But, only by trying to close the sale time and time again I was able to learn how to express things better and to become a better salesman for my brother.
For three long days, I kept going. Smiling, being friendly and sharing the beauty in my brother’s work with everyone I could. I was tired, my legs hurt (and they still do as I write this), and on top of it, I was hungry, because we all had to keep going to make the convention a success.
And on the last day, just a few hours before everything ended, we hit our goal. We sold as many illustrations as we could.
It was a team effort, and we all felt as if we had finally climbed an impossible mountain and planted our flag on the summit.
You too can do the same for your business; you have to keep going, even if the odds are stacked against you.
Out there are people who want what you are offering. Keep pushing, and learning from every experience. Both failure and success can show you the path that you need to take to achieve your goals.
The only thing you need to do is to have 5 seconds of courage to approach your audience and present your work. That’s all it takes.