Josh Melick is an engineer and entrepreneur who is obsessed with processes and the use of digital tools and systems in business and is an authority when it comes to helping new businesses grow from strength to strength. As to date, he has founded three successful companies. In particular, his advice is useful for entrepreneurs who have little sales experience and come from an engineering or product development background.
Melick advises entrepreneurs to hone their sales skills and to create multiple sales pitches which are tailored to different occasions. Some examples of which include a short elevator pitch which is limited to 2-3 minutes as well as a full sales pitch and a second call presentation. The latter of which can be used with a potential stakeholder or clients are interested in the information which is provided in a full sales pitch and have set up a second meeting to find out more information about a company.
Josh Melick tells all the entrepreneurs which he consults to practice all of their pitches to friends and family members in order to get honest reactions to each pitch so that they can fine-tune their pitches before they are used for the first time. As it’s ill-advised for entrepreneurs to test out a pitch for the first time with a real potential client or stakeholder.
Melick also promotes a somewhat controversial sales tactic for businesses to get their first few sales under their belts. He recommends that businesses are open to using practices that are unsustainable in the long term, in order to attract their first clients. Such as offering a one-time, opening sale that offers incredible deals which will never be repeated.
Melick also advises entrepreneurs to be open to the idea of cold selling when their business is new and is yet to build a positive reputation for itself. Melick’s reasoning is that people’s brains are hardwired to trust people who they already know over complete strangers and that if entrepreneurs try to cold sell their products and services to business contacts, they have a far higher chance of making sales. If these first sales go well their business will start to acquire a positive reputation and strangers will start to purchase their products and services without the need for cold sales.
Melick does however tell entrepreneurs that it’s essential for them to live up to the expectations which they have promised their initial customers and that they should endeavor to meet all of the promises which they have made in order to drum up their first customers. Especially as unsatisfied clients are likely to spread negative news about a new business via word of mouth.
Lastly, Melick does believe in the importance of businesses having polished, functional websites but he is adamant about the reality that it doesn’t matter how fancy a website is if people don’t know that it exists. So normal sales are still critical in the early stages of a business.
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