Are you jumping around trying to find great Small Business resources? Are you aware of a great small business resource in the North Carolina Community College System? It’s called the Small Business Center and you can find one in each of the 58 N.C. Community Colleges. If you are not in North Carolina, does your Community College System have a similar service? It’s worth checking into because of the great services available.

All 58 of the locations in North Carolina offer FREE or LOW COST workshops throughout the year that are an incredible value for Small Business Owner’s or those wanting to start a Small Business. In addition, each center has a Director who will consult with Small Business Owner’s or those wanting to start a Small Business and provide sound advice on appropriate steps to take toward success in the Small Business World. This is a North Carolina Resource that anyone interested in Small Business should tap into. If you are not in N.C., you should check with your local Community College to see if you have a resource like this readily available for you as well.

Posted by David: David Williams has been a Small Business Speaker since January 2000 and continues to travel from the coast of North Carolina to the mountains conducting Internet based workshops.  Create Business Growth is dedicated to helping Small Business Owner’s grow their business online and off.

If you’re a business owner, you’d better be a darn good sales person. Not only do you need sales skills to grow your customer base, but you also need to ‘sell’ your employees, partners, peers, and advertisers on your mission.

Most people cringe when they hear the word ‘salesperson.’ So do I. I was in sales and was a sales trainer for one of the biggest insurance companies in the US for several years yet I never considered myself a salesperson, and I consider that philosophy to be the reason I closed more sales than 93% of the rest of the 200 person San Diego sales team in my office.

Instead, I considered myself a problem solver. I genuinely like people and I like a challenge. I honestly felt the product I sold was the best in most cases and when it wasn’t the best fit, I let the customer know that.

Here are some very simple tips you can walk away with and improve your sales today:

• Ask lots of questions. You have no business suggesting a solution until you truly understand the customer’s problem.

• Allow the customer to talk more than you do. If you find yourself talking too much, ask another question.

• Relate the benefits of your products or services to the customer’s exact and particular needs as they arise in conversation.

• Ask for the sale. Most people don’t do this! That’s because we’re afraid of rejection. If you want to make sales, you’ve got to ready for objections.

• Know the difference between real objections and stalls. If someone says I’ll think about it, this is a stall. Get to the real objection by asking a question like “what other information can I provide you with to help you make your decision?

Sales is fun. I never thought that I would be a top sales person. Never. I took the job because it was the best paying job at the company and I picked that company because it was the only professional company that offered a night shift so that I could stay home with my then toddler and 6 month old.

I wanted to succeed so I pushed past the discomfort and found that sales is exciting, fun, rewarding, and it feels great when you can connect a person in need to a solution that is just right for them.

Think of it this way- If you’ve got a great service to offer, you are doing the world a disservice by not being a great salesperson!

Recommended Reading

The Sales Bible by Jeffery Gitomer
Advanced Selling Strategies by Brian Tracy

I’m sure most of you have heard of the book “Multiple Streams of Income”. The author points out that you should not rely on only one stream of income because if that one goes away you are left with nothing. The same holds true for clicks to your website. You want to have multiple ways people are finding your website.

Here is a list of some of the ways people could be finding you:

1. Natural search engine rankings
2. Search engine ad programs (AdWords in Google)
3. Articles (some you have written, some other people have written)
4. Forums (give good advice to a tough question and people will find you)
5. Paid ads on other sites
6. E-Books (write one with links to your site and then give it away)
7. Blogs (yours and other people’s)
8. Social Networking sites like Digg, MyBlogLog, FastPitch, StumbleUpon
9. Press Releases (that you distribute or have someone distribute for you)
10. Printed Books (write one and put your website address in it)
11. News Stories (make it easy for the press to find information about you on your site)
12. News Letters (electronic)
13. News Letters (printed)
14. Your e-mail signature
15. Your business card
16. Magnetic sign on your car
17. News Papers (printed, run an ad with your website address in it)
18. Radio (make sure your url is easy to say and spell)
19. TV ad or news
20. Fliers
21. Posters
22. Shirts
23. Hats
24. Coffee cups
25. Pens
26. Podcasts
27. Link exchange
28. Link bait links
29. Friends and family (make sure they know who might be interested in your site)
30. Tattoo (not for the meek or weak and no I don’t have mine…yet)

You might not be able to afford all of these streams at the same time and it would be a very tough job keeping track of all of it at once, but, pick a few and go for it. Several of them only cost the time it takes you to put it together.