Are you retail or sales?

From an e-mail article by Coach Dan Blanchard (www.radical-selling.com)

"Retail" and "sales" are mutually exclusive terms: the retail mentality is to put yourself in the place where people are going to buy things; the sales mentality is that people do want to buy things, but YOU create the conditions where the purchase is a huge WIN for the buyer.

In the retail mentality, the salesperson isn't terribly important (what kind of $ do retail salespeople make?). In the sales mentality, the best salesperson in a company makes more than the CEO.

Solopreneurs think if we are out there, that if we are visible (better website or Google ranking, yellow pages advertising) "Build it and they will come" does not work. As a solopreneur you need to make offers and close the deal (even if it is hot referral).

A habit I've developed is to never leave a conversation without making an offer (no matter how small), and getting a decision on that offer from the prospect.