Running a small business can be excruciatingly tough at times; you get squeezed for every penny on fees, have invoices ignored, get treated like an afterthought and can be completely derailed by the smallest hiccup. That’s before you even mention all the ghosting and cashflow challenges.
There are days that I miss being an employee at a big firm and it’s incredibly easy to always focus on the negatives of running a small business but ultimately I Love the business I started and I didn’t start it not to have fun.
Sure running a small business is a lot like a perpetual game of Snakes and Ladders but as long as you keep these 21 rules in mind as you build, you’ll be fine.
When I was at a big consulting firm, it was so much easier to sell projects just because you had a big brand behind you.
Without that you have to be very entrepreneurial; to maximise this I’ve found my own way to cut through the noise as a small business.
At the heart of my approach is Structured Serendipity — this is where I look to make new connections every week and constantly attempt to increase my business’s surface area for luck.
I have long since discovered that if you feed the beast, the beast will feed you and over the 7 years I’ve been running my business I have adapted my own behaviours, becoming more direct in chase of those opportunities (after all: your business will only grow as much as you do).
When allied with a mantra of: Always be memorable; it has served my business very well.
In fact, it has led to sales in some of the most unexpected places.
I could have made this list 10 but for succinctness, I’ve picked my top 3 favourite random sales types to expand your views on the art of the possible:
1️⃣ The Judo-flip Sale: I have done this 4 times now; it’s where someone is attempting to sell to you (usually one of those pitch-slap sellers from LinkedIn) but you flip it around.
My first one of these was probably the best; someone from a recruitment firm rang me to promote their services. After a 10 minute monologue where they did not ask me a single question nor pick up on my resistance to their pitch, they finally ran out of steam and asked:
“What is it you do anyway?” — haha, you’re going to regret asking!
At which point I proceeded to play back the entire 10 minute conversation, second-by-second, pointing out all the IQ, EQ and FQ errors they had made (including the use of jargon and complicated language, long sentences and the lack of pauses, the lack of rapport building, no questions, no research on my business, no energy in their pitch, and so much more.)
The salesman was flabbergasted and asked if I could teach those listening, rapport building and communication skills.
One thing led to another and voila, the sale of 3 training sessions for him and his team 🙌
2️⃣ The Failed Date Sale: This is a common one for me and usually comes off the back of a failed date or similar collaboration intro (where someone introduces you to another business under the auspice that there might be an opportunity to collaborate).
I’ve long ago realised that, even if the date doesn’t work out for it’s original intention, as long as you leave a positive experience and are memorable then that trumps everything.
One of my fave examples of that was when someone I had been on one date with 2 years prior rang me out of the blue to have me come and run an away day for the leadership team at her consulting firm 🙌
3️⃣ The Trapped Audience Sale: This is where I can constantly hear my dad’s words from my childhood ringing in my ears:
“Don’t be so British and reserved, be more Arabic”
If you take the approach that every stranger is just a friend you haven’t yet met then it becomes much easier to chat to a stranger; even more so where you are both trapped audiences in a location.
It could be in a lift, when you’re giving blood, at a wedding or just about anywhere.
One recent example that sticks in my mind was when flying back from Warsaw last autumn having run the Warsaw marathon the previous day.
The gentleman next to me spent the first 5 minutes of the flight rubbing his legs and sighing a lot so I guessed he had also ran the same marathon.
I used that as my intro and by the end of the 2.5 hour flight he had invited me to talk about motivation at the Investment Firm he was CFO at.
Winner Winner! 🙌
So there you go; easy-peasy.
Ok, maybe it’s not that easy but if you don’t put yourself out there then serendipity is less likely to happen.
Just remember: if you do get the sniff of an unexpected sale then please, please, whatever you do: Don’t sell the Ferrari for a Fiver.
If you want any help finding those unexpected sales then just drop me a line 🙂
Faris
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
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Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/
