I was trying to think of the next position that we (iProv, LLC) need to hire. I thought sales would be really nice because it takes so much of my time. But then I realized. I’ve been really great at sales and really bad at sales. The difference wasn’t me… not directly.

The difference between me being a great salesman and a bad salesman was my product knowledge and the confidence in my product. We can’t expect a great salesperson to sell our product if they don’t know what our product is or don’t understand the real use of our product.

This really clicked on me when Dan Wilson tried to tell me ump-teen ways on how to sell a service to Arkansas Minority Health Commission. He had all the sales techniques in the world but he had no idea on what he was selling or why the product was usefull.

Instead of hiring sales people who need to be trained, its more beneficial to invest in marketing and advertising that can eliminate the prospecting. Sales and marketing allows the advertisment (press release, magazine ad, television ad, radio ad, etc.) to prospect for you.

Let’s face it a lot of energy, time, and money has to be invested into a new employee before he is ready to run out the door respresenting you company. So save your money, payroll tax expense, training time, and phone bills by hiring Marketing and PR firms rather than having to train Technology Sales People.