The ADD Business Owner

Could You Have a Business Addiction?

Dr. Charles Parker, one of my favorite people in health and medicine, was quoted in a blog post today about people who become addicted to the selling process. Part I of the two-part post looks at "closing addicts."

Closing addicts rarely talk about their personal lives and believe that taking a client to a ball game is a waste of time. They carefully conceal their own feelings and don't want to deal with anything emotional. To protect themselves, they wear a polite yet unemotional mask. To some, they may appear to be cold-blooded sales sharks, but in reality they tend to feel quite vulnerable. Why? They tend to believe that their self-worth depends on racking up big sales. [Emphasis is mine.]

I find this interesting because I think the problem of warped self-worth applies to many ADD business owners, not just people who are addicts. 

ADDers and entrepreneurs alike have a tendency to hyperfocus during periods of "flow," which forces sacrifices. It's not uncommon for a person to abandon family time, miss meals, or even skip out on sleep. The "pressure to perform" and be successful is so great that the person becomes focused solely on business, and their personal life suffers. There is no balance, and work becomes the only thing that provides satisfaction.

While this will happen to everyone from time to time, it's not the kind of thing you want to make a habit of. When business becomes all-consuming, it's time to seek help. Depending on the severity of the problem, working with a coach, therapist, or doctor is a good idea. 

Our businesses should absolutely bring us joy, satisfaction, and self-worth...but they shouldn't be the sole source good things in our lives.

A Lesson from the Farmer's Market

Since moving from New York City to the "country" of Ulster County, Erin and I have enjoyed taking advantage of the wonderful farms here, and we make a real effort to eat local.

We regularly visit farmer's markets, farm stores, and wineries. Because I'm so interested in business, I'm always paying attention to the ways in which these small farms conduct business. Are the employees and representatives friendly? Are the products fresh and nicely displayed? Is the farm missing opportunities to make money?

I observed an interesting scene at a farmer's market on Sunday. One farmer had tons of peppers and tomatoes on display. Each variety was in a separate bin, and had a plate of samples (in small pieces) so that visitors could determine what they liked, and easily find that specific vegetable. People asked questions and the farmer joyfully, but honestly, answered--even admitting that he was really tired of harvesting tomatoes and was ready for the season to be over. He had personality, and so did his display. People were crowded around his stand and he did a lot of business.

The farmer across from him, however, didn't do so well. He had his produce on display and he sat back in a chair behind the stand, staring at the busy stand with a slightly bitter look on his face.

I find it funny that, in a farmer's market, some farms will offer samples of their produce, cheese, wine, or other products, while other farms expect you to buy on good faith. A farm selling produce can almost get away with it, but it absolutely kills me when a person thinks that I'll buy a bottle of wine or a hunk of cheese without being able to taste it first.

I'm sure that these farms aren't rolling in money. Farming has never been considered a lucrative profession. There's no doubt that many farms are afraid that they'll lose money by offering samples. Unfortunately, this is flawed logic. Farmer's markets offer small farms the opportunity to reach huge numbers of people every weekend and turn them into loyal customers. By offering food samples at a cost of $10 or $20 at most, the farm can easily gain more sales right then and there, along with new customers who will buy $10 or $20 worth of food a week, every week. It's just good business sense. 

Are you losing business by cheaping out? How can you gain more business by offering potential clients and customers a small taste of what you have to offer?

How Not to Sell Furniture

This past weekend we bought a new dining room set that we've been eying for months now.  We went into the furniture store knowing what we wanted, and ready to negotiate.  As much as I hate it, negotiations are my role.

Our sales person was very nice, but inexperienced.  So when it came time to negotiate the price, she quickly brought her manager into the deal, who got on my bad side immediately by shaking our hands and then doing an awkward two-finger-point as he said "Lemme guess! Sisters?" 

No, dumb ass, lesbians.  Why is that you and every other sales person on the planet feels the need to guess my relationship with my partner?  "Sisters?  Friends?  Business partners?"  No! Lesbians, lesbians, lesbians!  When two women of roughly the same age buy a dining room set together, you can pretty much bet that they're lesbians!

Sorry for the aside.  It just irks me.

Anyway, after the awkward guessing game, I nicely tell him that we're ready to buy.

These are the pieces we want, we've shopped around locally, and we know what we would pay at some other stores.  So how much are you willing to take off the retail price when we package all these pieces together?

At this point, the sales manager begins to tell me about other package deals in the collection that included pieces we do not want.  Not an upsell, but kind of a sidesell.  (Why??)

Nope, no thanks, this is what we want.  Let's talk numbers.

Then he tells me about financing options.

That's nice, but it's secondary.  Numbers, please.

Onto what makes this store better than their competitors.

Listen, I can buy the furniture here, or I can go somewhere else.  HOW MUCH?

Finally, he gets down to the numbers, we negotiate, and a sale is made.  Now wasn't that easy?

I'm not saying that this guy was wrong to point out other packages and promotions.  And I'm not saying he was wrong to run down the financing options or to tell me why his store beats the competitors.  But this sales manager was on his own page.  He was rehearsing a canned sales pitch instead of listening to his customer.

Imagine how different this blog post might be if he had said to me: "I understand that price is really important to you, and I think we can come to an arrangement that you'll be very happy with.  However, I'd also like to point out to you that there are a number of reasons why you want to buy your furniture here, as opposed to somewhere else.  For instance, we offer a..."

Hell, if I felt like he listened to me, I could have forgiven that ridiculous lemme-guess game.  And, more importantly, I would have been happy to tell others about my positive experience and send referrals.

Never underestimate the power of acknowledging and mirroring your customer's sentiments in the sales process.