How an entrepreneur overcame reluctance to sell, by leveraging spirituality!
- in eternal aum consciousness
- Oct 1, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 22, 2024
After aum chanting, a meeting
Today, after aum chanting, i met Kamal, my dear friend, who shared his experience of his recent Varanasi trip. I am planning a trip next month. As we were leaving, i shared, what have learnt recently on driving sales through a spiritual approach and he asked for more details. I figured out that this may be a problem for many, as it was for me ... Hence this blog.
Most entrepreneurs are very good at what they do. But lack the sales skill, which limits the growth of their business. This was my problem too and here is my experience of how i solved it with a spiritual approach.
Who is this blog for
Some people enjoy making money. It is never enough for them. This blog of not for them.
Some people think that making money is not good, it is ok, not to be wealthy etc.. This blog is not for them too. They need to get the limiting beliefs cleared first, which is a seperate topic.
The blog is for founders who are good at heart, are spiritually inclined, who see sales as an unnecessary burden, think it is not their role, are into a small business. There are many of them i know.
They got some initial success from the people who knew and trusted them. Their business grows through referrals. Now their business either stagnates or grows slowly or is unpredictable.
Sales is not a bad thing!
Sales is often equated to shady deals, not seen as a positive role, seen as dumping a product or "chipkao" sometime to the client. These negative connotations in the subconscious mind, stop the founder from pursuing sales, slowing the business down. Even after knowing it's importance, the founder is stopped by this mindset. This can be overcome by being clear about roles.
Clarity of self, roles and duties.
As one gets clear on the roles and the self, you realise that all desires are linked to a role. This clarity of the self comes from studying nirvanashatakam. See the link below.
Each role has duties associated with it. Which are eternal. For example, as a parent, there are some duties. Similarly, as the founder of a business, there are certain duties. Sales is a key duty of the founder.
Santana dharma is nothing but following eternal duties, associated with the role. When one does ones duty, there is no karma.
So even while progress on the spiritual path makes you compassionate as a person, to win an order, competition must be beaten by saama, daama, danda bheda meaning friendly, monetary, penal or divide approach. It's the role that demands that and as a founder, it's the duty as a founder that you must do. It has nothing to do with compassion at a personal level.
If you are not doing your duty, like dhritrashtra did not do his, in Mahabharat, which lead to the war, it's your fault. No one else is to blame. When you took up the role of founding a business, this is one of the key duties you have to fulfill. If you don't sell, your business will not expand. Period.
This super clarity of dharma of sales, related to the role of the founder, combined with the 3 mantras sets the right mindset. Pl see the link below.
The urge to give.
The universal consciousness, manifested in different beings, has inherent suffering in one form or the other, which comes from unfulfilled desires, linked to the roles. The compassion, arises from the inner urge to fulfill the need of the soul, which is to give. This comes from the need to connect with people. Feel their pain.
Unless the urge to give is not there, "padi nahi hai". Nothing will happen. It has to come from within.
The measure of urge to give, is the level of pain you feel inside, when the user of your product or services suffers. Pain is a bigger motivator than pleasure. Here, we direct the pain of others to get us into action.
The best way to do this is by visualising the pain of clients and then feeling it within and declaring that, you will never ever let them be in pain, with whatever resources, products, services available to you.
Value addition by giving
The concept of giving is explained in the following link.
https://www.limaye.org/post/fulfillment-comes-from-giving-not-having-but-what-is-giving-giving-away-your-wealth-is-that-all
How to measure value addition.
Value addition by a business, is directly measured by sales! If no one wants to buy what you making, your are not adding enough value. Maybe you are offering something wrong to a person, at a wrong price, a wrong place... something is wrong. The urge to give is translated into value added products and services, not by offering what you want, but what the other person needs!
More you sell, you know more value addition you are doing to others. Now sales is a way of giving, for which you will get a fair price in exchange.
Keep the focus on action.
Once the business model is known, it will generate margin at a percentage. Focus on value addition. That's all. On Giving, That's all. Be focused on value addition. Not on the profits, which is a by product. That will follow.
What will happen with this clarity.
You will become a good listener for others problems.
You will enjoy networking
Your will connect with people at a deeper level.
People will trust you
You will not sell. People will buy from you.
Perspective.
The business is now a means to add value to others lives. It's no longer about selling. The founder is now passionate about sales more than execution, which drives business growth.
Sales Tools and training.
Unless this mindset is formed, the inner propose of sales is clear, no seminars or books will help, if the context is not set. I have done many trainings, which did not help much as it was like a fit body, without a soul!
The spiritual trap of contentment
Many take the spiritual approach to not grow, as the contentment takes over. The realisation of difference between needs and wants, many times kills the drive to grow. This is a trap. This originates from thinking only about self and immediate family. But the role of business leader, comes with growing the business with value addition and sales. It's a role. Let not the personal contentment, peace, interfere with the duty of growth. This level of clarity is needed.
Chasing name and fame
Some chase name and fame, some avoid name and fame. The take is that in the process of value addition, if name and fame comes or goes, it does not matter. Whether you get an award, does not matter. If it comes, it is ok. If it does not, it is also ok.
My experience.
This focus has created multiple offerings in multiple ventures, created a lead generation machine, which has happened in last few months, with complete focus, resolved many bottlenecks. Overall, a superb experience and it's started showing in the result.
The commitment to value addition to others is the foundation of innovation (new products and services that meet customer needs) and marketing (lead generation by proper communication)..
I am fortunate to get guidance from our mentor ambrish chheda from master class on the marketing aspect. Unless, the value addition goal was clear, i Rani l was not committed to lead genaration! Now I am. Innovation and marketing are two aspects i spend most of time on.
Enjoying sales.
I now look forward to all sales opportunities. Rather than seeing it as a burden or a boring activity. Sales is the barometer of value addition! Simple.
Discussing with a few friends
I have friends who are into small businesses. Liz is into posture correction and smithaa into energy healing. Kamal is into data analytics. Nikunj does iso consulting. Nikhil runs a large school. Anjana is into soft skills training. There are so many of us, trying to make a difference. The key is to scale up, fast to add more and more value.
I look forward to all my friends, getting some insight from this blog. This is my way of giving back to my friends, and readers of the blog.
The urge to write blogs
My commitment is, that the time and energy i have invested in finding these insights, should be readily available to everyone.
As my friend Jyoti, messaged me after reading one of the blogs.
Jyoti was very attached to her mentor and was not able to move away into the ocean of learning, though she has realised that it was time to move on.
She got this link from me.
She got my blog at the right time. As if it was written for her ...
Jyoti: There was a lovely portion where I felt it was written for me or my personal experience. Loved it. Keep rolling!!!
Even if one person gets one insight, it is worth writing the blogs. The blogs just flow, as i gather some insight, based on my experience.
Awareness.
To keep things in awareness, there is no better way than to be in the internal aum sound at all times. See the link below.
Blessing.
Connected to the ultimate purpose of giving, may you scale heights of sales, like never before, and break all records!
Very beautifully articulated Deven. I am sure it will help many entrepreneurs to drop the fear of sales and thrive to ultimate heights