Front Office Box

This is insight a father passes on to his son, not some B/S published by somebody trying to sell a book.

The biggest single demographic starting up their own business is the fugitive from the corporation. Experienced professionals decide the corporate rat race can get along without them. They escape the cubicle to make their own way in the world.

With good reason they believe they have experience others will contract for and they’ll have a better life doing it for themselves, as opposed to “the company”.

Earn more, work less, with more control and less stress is an attractive proposition for the executive leaping off the corporate ladder.

While expertise in their subject is beyond question, starting their own business will bring new challenges – typically administration, accounting, marketing and most of all sales. Selling is something they’ve never needed, until now, to do.

These people are Reluctant Rainmakers. No training, no skills, and probably no aptitude. Nevertheless their services still need selling.

I remember those days, a long time ago, when somebody had to do it and that turned out to be me. It was an uncomfortable time, and I made lots of mistakes.

Subsequently I got lucky – joined companies which trained me, worked with colleagues who generously shared their experience. Over time selling became both an art and a science. Something I was entirely comfortable with.

Not that long ago Gareth decided he wanted to have his own business – this was the beginning of Widespread Solutions and Front Office Box. He’s an expert in getting people software that does the job they need done tomorrow, today, but knew nothing about selling, or customers, or business.

He built Briefcase, the first version of Front Office Box, in a fortnight with me deciding what it should do and how. But it soon became obvious. For all his skills he didn’t know how to find and convert prospects into customers.

That was the start of the Front Office Box blog – really just me writing down some explanations of the most basic concepts of selling.

We’ve evolved quite a bit since then. This blog comprises numerous articles attempting to help people in the same situation Gareth found himself in – the Reluctant Rainmaker.

If that’s also you, I recommend you spend some time here.

This is insight a father passes on to his son, not some B/S published by somebody trying to sell a book.

There’s too much here to link to in one post but you’ll find all the sales related comment/guidance in our Sales Strategies and Tactics

The most popular posts seem to be related to Sales Qualification

And you can find some (not all yet) of this content in our free White Papers in our Download Centre

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September 29th, 2009 - Posted in Starting a business  |  Add a Comment