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Key Takeaways If you’re starting a business, you’ll need to learn how to sell, and mastering your craft doesn’t automatically make you a seller.
Shift your mindset and understand it’s not about you. Ask questions that draw out the customer’s context, challenges and desired outcomes.
Develop better questioning and listening skills, and understand that value is defined by the customer, not by you.
Know that not every conversation is a sales opportunity. The win comes from recognizing early who you should pursue and who you shouldn’t.
When founders launch a business, they’re often propelled by confidence in their craft — deep accounting expertise, an architect’s trained eye or a passion for chemical-free lawn care. But mastering your craft doesn’t automatically make you a seller, and in today’s competitive market, selling is the skill that determines whether your business thrives or just survives.
Most new entrepreneurs want to talk about their solution. They are experts on their product, their services and their vision. But success depends less on talking and more on asking, listening, understanding and connecting to the buyer’s reality. After all, selling is all about alignment: How can you uncover what matters to your customer and help them see that you deliver the outcomes they truly value?
Here’s how founders can build real selling capability as the engine that drives growth.
Shift your mindset: It’s not about you
Your business idea may be brilliant — but customers don’t buy brilliant ideas. They buy solutions to their problems.
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