Convincing Your First Customer in Business

Achieve the extraordinary with self-belief

Let me guess- as soon as you saw my heading you thought you are going to read another marketing manual. Well, it is a case of “Yes” and “No”. Yes! This article talks about convincing an individual. No! Because the individual involved is actually you.

A lot of emphasis is placed on convincing other people about our business ideas, products, projects etc. to the point that business mentors and their mentees fail to realise that  the most important individual that needs to be convinced is primarily- you! “You” meaning the individual who has the idea that he/she wants to bring to fruition be it a business, new product, innovative service or landmark project. You need to genuinely convince yourself about the viability and sustainability of the idea you want to sell to other people as investors, employees, distributors and customers.

This process of convincing yourself is very important because without it, you are most likely going to fail in whatever endeavour you set out to build and make a success of. Why? You may ask. Well, the truth is: virtually everything is simpler when imagined than done.

At the conceptualisation stage, it is quite possible for you to overlook many problems, constraints and limitations that your idea has. These may eventually hit you hard when it comes to implementation. It is at such points that the belief you have bought from selling your idea to yourself works in your favour. It helps you with the courage needed to confront the challenges that have now emerged on your road to success.

It also helps you confront doubters and haters, two sets of people that almost always appear when you try to be dynamic and creative. Some may be benign others may be vicious but the truth is: both these sets of people are dream/idea killers. Without having a strong faith and belief in yourself and your ideas, these people would cast doubts and/or ridicule your efforts especially when things aren’t running as you expected.

Self-belief isn’t self-delusion; it is recognising the fact that you have carefully considered an idea and think it is worthwhile to invest your resources to bring it to reality. You also recognise that there are challenges and are willing to confront them by gaining the required knowledge or skills to overcome them. This can be achieved either by receiving relevant training or making use of the know-how of other people.

Whatever it is you set-out to achieve, critically examine it and ensure it is worthwhile and achievable. Once you have honestly done this, don’t let anyone or any challenges hold you down for too long- keep moving forward in the right direction. Ultimately, you should achieve your objectives with right mixture of knowledge, tenacity and perseverance.