Birth of a Salesman

I was having an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who represents a major financial planning company. We were discussing the fostering of customer relationships, cold calls, advertising, word-of-mouth, and other buzzwords and phrases when I came to a startling realization:  I am a salesman.

My wife and I own and operate a small bookkeeping and accounting firm. We are busy but we are always looking for more clients. We have had a lovely response from our community and friends and business seems to always be growing.  However, I never thought about myself as a salesman. My wife, Tania, is a salesman. She will blatantly promote our business to whomever we see. She always says that “it’s easy because she believes in what we do” but I never really thought about it….that is, until the other day.

As I have become more confident in the value-for-services that we offer to our clients, “selling” has become really easy for me. I thought I hated sales but, as it turns out, it is one of the highlights of my job. I’ve just never thought about it as sales because I consider “sales” the act of trying to get someone to pay me for something or some service.  The difference for me is that I am trying to “give” my clients something.

I know that I can do an outstanding job of organizing someones books or handling their back-filing of income taxes.  I know that many people become stressed over the thoughts of having to do these tasks. When people see me, they seem tense and grumpy…or worse, scared and overwhelmed. However, after we talk and they drop off their box of “goodies”, the leave with a smile on their face and a spring in their step.  I give them freedom and peace of mind.  It sounds cliche but it’s true.

They’re happy and  I am happy because of their reaction.  When they pay me for my services, the invoice is always less than they thought it would be (which will, more than likely, be the topic of a future post of how to better price my services lol). Sometimes, I don’t even charge people if the task is small…. I think of it as simply helping out a friend.

And, for the most part, my clients have become good friends.

So…there you have it. Not much depth to this post other than some personal revelations:  I am a salesman, and I really do love my job!