How to Sell... Without Having to Be a Salesperson

Many entrepreneurs are great business people, but they don’t necessarily want to sell. In fact, most would rather do anything besides selling.

However, small business owners who are just getting started often are working with a limited budget. They can’t always hire someone else to do the marketing for them. That means they are stuck doing the selling themselves….

Or are they?

Are you in this situation? Consider this: getting other people to sell for you, but you don’t pay them. Getting people to buy your products or services without actually asking them to give you money.

This is a really simple marketing strategy that is often overlooked by small business owners. It’s not necessarily free, but it can cost less than paying for ads or hiring a marketer – and it may even produce more sales.

Let me explain.

The basic idea is to let people sample your product or test drive your service for free before giving you any money. This gets you out of the job of being the “salesperson” and lets the product or service do the convincing.

If the prospect likes what you offer, they essentially sell themselves on your product or service without you having to stumble through an uncomfortable sales pitch.

They now like you because you gave them something for free. They also trust you because you because they liked what you gave them. They are now more likely to buy from you AND tell their friends to buy from you too.

But wait, how do I give stuff away for free without losing a bunch of money?

With careful planning.

1. First of all, you don’t want to give free stuff to everyone. Focus exclusively on people who are likely to want what you offer.

2. It’s also a good idea to send samples to a group of people rather than individuals. You can reach more people at once with less effort.
3. One more thing – When you use this strategy, some people will like your free gift (or maybe everyone). Make it easy for them to order from you again or tell their friends about you. Make it super easy.

Start by making a list of local businesses, organizations and community events where you can offer samples or let people test-drive your service. Make sure that the groups include your target market.

Reaching out to businesses also opens the opportunity for larger orders. Let’s say you run a catering company, and you send over a free lunch platter to a local business along with business cards, menu and ordering details. You may get individuals ordering from you, but it’s more likely that the business would purchase a meal for their entire staff.

Read more and get the tools to use with this simple strategy to do your own marketing without actually having to sell.

For more small business ideas, visit The New Business Idea. You can also get start-up instructions for 200+ businesses and download the Home Business Start-Up Checklist free from HomeBusinesscenter.com.