Entrepreneurial Selling

Entrepreneurial Selling
The Facts Every Entrepreneur
Must Know
Vincent Onyemah and Martha Rivera-Pesquera

Entrepreneurial Selling: The Facts Every Entrepreneur Must Know

Copyright Business Expert Press, LLC, 2017.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other
except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior
permission of the publisher.
First published in 2017 by
Business Expert Press, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.businessexpertpress.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-63157-321-7 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-63157-322-4 (e-book)
Business Expert Press Selling and Sales Force Management Collection
Collection ISSN: 2161-8909 (print)
Collection ISSN: 2161-8917 (electronic)
Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd.,
Chennai, India
First edition: 2017
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.

With love, affection, and gratitude to my wife, Ifeoma (Ify),

and to our children, Ezinne, Kambili, and Lotanna
Vincent Onyemah
With gratitude and love to my loving parents, Marta and Francisco,
and my siblings, Ma. Angelica, Francisco, and Juan Carlos,
for being always there for me
Martha Rivera-Pesquera

Abstract
Entrepreneurial Selling addresses the unique challenges faced by entrepreneurs in search of buy-ins for novel ideas, products, or services. In
addition to describing typical hurdles, it offers strategies to win over
customers, employees, financiers, suppliers, board members, and other
collaborators. While most books on entrepreneurship focus on the profile
of entrepreneurs and startup capital, Entrepreneurial Selling sheds light
on how entrepreneurs can excel at selling to obtain resources of all kinds.
The success of a novel idea hinges on identifying, reaching, engaging, and
convincing different stakeholders of its merits. Basically, entrepreneurship
is not possible without the ability to sell. Based on multiyear field studies
and many consulting projects with entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, Europe,
Latin America, Middle East, and North America, the insight contained
herein should give entrepreneurs a leg up by helping them to prevent
costly mistakes and increase the odds of realizing their dreams. Ultimately,
the goal is to move beyond wishful thinking and into a strong business
foundation by facilitating early reality checks that will inform productive
usage of entrepreneurs limited resources.

Keywords
buy-ins, convince, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, resources, selling,
stakeholders

Contents
Forewordsxi
Acknowledgments xvii
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

SalesA Journey and a Destination 1

Filling the Void in Entrepreneurial Discourse3
Why Selling Is Vital to Entrepreneurship5
Finding the Right Sales Model for Your Business13

Part II
The Selling Process 27
Chapter 4 Navigating Your Way to a Yes29
Chapter 5 Managing Interaction and Engagement with
ProspectiveCustomers45
Chapter 6 Handling Objections57
Part III
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10

Avoiding the Pitfalls 75

The Forgotten Prospects77
Other Common Misconceptions81
Sales Challenges and Responses85
Parting Advice93

Bibliography101
Index105

Forewords
Believe it or not, most aspiring entrepreneurs consider selling the most
undignified and dirty part of their jobs. Instead, their view is a more
romantic one of heroic innovators passionate about disrupting existing markets, hopefully valued so much as to enter the entrepreneurial
Unicorn Hall of Fame. They are not sneaky salesmen, wolfing around
Wall Street, bilking Aunt Betsy out of her hard earned pension and leaving her penniless. No, entrepreneurs honorably rise above the wicked
world of mere salesmanship to let their amazing and awesome products
sell themselves. To buy their better mouse trap, the world will beat a path
to their doors.
Not so much: The reality of being an entrepreneur is that selling is
one of, if not the, most essential functions in building great companies.
In fact, sales, as Vini Onyemah and Martha Rivera-Pesquera point out,
is a fundamental pillar of the entrepreneurship process in which value
is exchanged between two people so that both are enrichedone with
profit, and the other with product and the benefits it bestows on them.
As sure as Unicorns are mythical beasts, in the real world no entrepreneur
can be successful without riding the workhorse of sales.
I met Vini seven years ago when we both were joining the Babson
College community, during an orientation walk around the beautiful
Babson campus west of Boston. I was excited that he had been building
his academic career on his decades of personal selling experience, as well
as academic and practical understanding of the sales process. You would
think that sales would be a staple of business school offerings, but I had
just spent five years on the Harvard Business School faculty where only
one professor believe it or not, out of 200, Frank Cespedes, was seriously
committed to teaching students how to sell.
What I have learned since then, having collaborated very closely with
Vini on numerous large-scale projects in several countries, is that Vini
walks the walk. Every professional interaction he has is a manifestation

xii Forewords

of the fair and mutually beneficial process of sales, that is, exchanging
value. Well, to be honest, anyone who has had the pleasure of being in
one of Vinis classrooms knows that he runs the run rather than the
walk. He is a bundle of energy and excitement, humorously yet with
intent seriousness helping students as well as real entrepreneurs on fire
with ambition to grow their ventures. Sales is a calling for Vini, not a
profession.
Fortunately, this book brings some of that same energy and practical
wisdom to a much broader audience.
By Daniel Isenberg, PhD

Entrepreneurship Is the Pursuit of Opportunity

Without Regard to Resources Currently Controlled
This is the definition of entrepreneurship that I learned from Professor
Howard Stevenson, my friend and mentor at Harvard Business School,
when I began my doctoral program in 1990. The definition captures
all of the key elements of entrepreneurial activityopportunity, active
engagement (pursuit), and resources. Notice that it does not suggest that
resources are unimportant to success, but indicates that a true entrepreneur is not limited in thinking by only those resources she already has.
Securing the resources necessary to deliver on the dream is a fundamental
entrepreneurial activity.
Successful entrepreneurs are those who envision a future that will be
superior to the present because of the goods or services they can deliver.
They then must share the vision and creatively assemble the resources necessary to execute. There are many steps (and potential pitfalls) between
that first light bulb moment and ringing the opening bell on the stock
exchange.
Taking the idea to a viable business concept requires careful research
and analysis, thoughtful discussion and customer sampling. When the
concept is sufficiently refined to represent a high-quality business opportunity, the entrepreneur has to begin the real work of assembling the
human, financial, and physical resources to deliver on the concept. This
is where selling and salesmanship come to the fore. I discovered this firsthand when I joined a startup team.

 Forewords

xiii

In July 1985, I met a former colleague in the lounge of our local

Marriott. He had moved on from the supermarket chain where we met to
become president of another company in the Northeast and we had not
seen each other for two years. We were meeting that day because he had
called me to say he had something very exciting to discuss.
I had heard rumors that he had left his job and was planning to start
a new venture. I went to the Marriott that day because I was curious and
was willing to offer advice, but I had no interest in joining him, which
would have meant abandoning a career I loved.
Tom Stemberg and I exchanged greetings, quickly ordered, and got
right into the reason for this meeting. He placed a large 3-ring binder
on the table and told me in very confidential tones that it was a plan
that would change my life. During the next two hours, I fell under the
Stemberg spell. He was the best salesman I have ever met and he was
determined to sell me his dream for a new retailing concept, Staples, the
Office Superstore.
Tom was able to convince me that the opportunity was enormous, the
time was right, and success would be possible for whoever developed the
right business model, built an operating plan, assembled a powerhouse
team, secured the necessary financial resources, and then executed flawlessly.
During the meeting, he outlined the plan and his reasons for pursuing
it but he spent most of the time focusing on mewhy I would be the
right one to be a key member of the founding team, what I could bring,
what I would do, what the rewards could be, and how I should assess and
confront the personal risk factors.
When I left what I thought would be a courtesy meeting, I had the
plan under my arm, excitement about the prospects, and a commitment
to meet again in three days. For me, the rest was history. I agreed to join
Tom, giving up my position as director of marketing, with substantial
salary and benefits and a promising future, because I was completely sold
on the concept and its promise.
My first tasks included helping Tom identify two other key members
of the founding team, meeting with potential investors, and looking for
real estate sites where we could locate stores. In every single instance, selling was the most critical skill needed.

xiv Forewords

In order to launch, we needed approximately 75 talented people

(many of them senior level, experienced people), three store locations and
a headquarters site, an IT system, willing suppliers of products and fixtures, and an investment of $4 million.
We were able to put all those together within the next six months and
open our first store in the spring of 1986 because of our ability to sell the
vision of the business and the capability of the team. Now, 30 years later,
Staples has revenues in excess of $20 billion and a market cap of more
than $6 billion.
Innovationthe ability to offer creative solutions to current problems or to anticipate and fulfill new needsis an essential ingredient of
every entrepreneurial venture. It can be as simple as finding a new way
to deliver consumer products (Staples, eBay, Amazon) or as revolutionary
as putting music in your ear (Walkman, smartphones), or as life-altering
as new miracle drugs, diagnostics, or devices. Innovation is necessary to
entrepreneurial success but it is not sufficient. The entrepreneur who
anticipates a future enriched by his vision must become the consummate
salespersonnot just at the outset, but also throughout his career.
Entrepreneurial Selling: The Facts Every Entrepreneur Must Know by
Vincent Onyemah and Martha Rivera-Pesquera provides expert guidance
on building and using this essential entrepreneurial skill set.
Shortly after I had joined the faculty of Harvard Business School in
1995, the chair of the Entrepreneurship unit suggested I take his place as
a visiting professor at IPADE in Mexico City for two weeks the following
summer.
During my first visit to campus, I was warmly greeted by many of the
faculty and the dean. I was also introduced to Martha Rivera-Pesquera,
a recent graduate of the IPADE MBA program who was so outstanding
that she was immediately recruited to join the faculty.
Over the next 10 years, I visited IPADE regularly, spreading my wings
to teach at the campuses in Monterrey and Guadalajara as well as M
exico
City. I developed an extraordinary respect for the institution, its faculty,
students, and curriculum. I also had the privilege of seeing Martha Rivera
mature in her mastery of teaching, take on substantial leadership roles
at IPADE and in the academy, and complete her PhD. She is an accomplished professor who also has experience as a practitioner. She and

 Forewords

xv

Professor Onyemah have collaborated to bring you some very valuable

lessons critical to a successful entrepreneurial venture.
Myra Hart
BA Cornell University
MBA, DBA Harvard University
Senior Faculty, Harvard Business School

Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the research grant provided by the Babson Faculty
Research Fund (BFRF), the IPADE Business School Research Fund,
Brian Voakes, and the Rumon Organization.
We will forever be indebted to the more than 120 entrepreneurs who
shared with us their experiences and insights during our fieldwork. This
book will not have been possible without them.
We extend our sincere appreciation to the following individuals who
facilitated contacts with the entrepreneurs and provided logistic support
during our fieldwork: Prof. Jose Antonio Davila, Filisiah Gogo, Guadalupe
Vazquez, Mercy Kinai, Myriam Moreno, Dr. Naomi M
angatu, Okey
Akpa, Peter Banky Bankole, Peter Russo, Stella Mulandi, and Yolanda
Nunez.
The support of our research assistants are truly appreciated: Chinazo
Iloeje, Ifeoma Onyemah (nee Dukes), Jorge Pablo Correa Gonzlez, and
Mary Chepkemoi.
The conception of the research work and the analysis that followed
benefited a great deal from the comments and advice of Professors Abdul
Ali, Candida Brush, Daniel Isenberg, and Leonard Schlesinger. To them,
we say a big thank you.
Special thanks also goes to the selling and sales force management
collection editors, Professors Buddy LaForge and Thomas Ingram, Robert
Nahas and Dana Micheli of Writer Services LLC and Andrea Reeves for
their priceless reviews and excellent editorial service.

PART I

SalesA Journey and

aDestination

CHAPTER 1

Filling the Void in

Entrepreneurial Discourse
If you want to be an entrepreneur, the first requirement is to know
how to sell.
Mayra Ortega, Lucas 5, Mexico City
Selling, or the art and science of convincing a party to accept an idea
or agree to an exchange, is one of the worlds oldest professions and a
vital component of any business venture. That said, the concept of selling
continues to be plagued by negative stereotypes that often lead to ambivalence about or even avoidance of selling. To see evidence of this, one must
look no further than the discourse and literature around entrepreneurship. Very limited space is devoted to the subject, despite the fact that the
world of exchange would be inconceivable without selling. Perhaps even
more surprising, the vast majority of business schools and colleges with
business curricula do not offer courses in selling. Finally, over the many
years we have been working with entrepreneurs we noticed that most do
not have adequate materials on selling. Moreover, we realized that the
existing sales models are inadequate for entrepreneurship because they are
largely based on presumptions that are different from the realities faced
by entrepreneurs. This book aims to fill this gap in those resources. Before
we could do that, of course, we had to determine how large that gap was.
Our primary goal was to shed light on the experiences of entrepreneurs as they try to make a case for their ideas and products or both to
various stakeholders (investors, partners, suppliers, channels, customers,
talents, etc.). As we also wanted a comprehensive view, we conducted
a study of how entrepreneurs in five continentsAsia, Africa, Europe,
North America, and Latin Americaobtained resources for their various
ventures. Not surprisingly, their success and failure stories offer excellent

ENTREPRENEURIAL SELLING

insights into how best to navigate the road between the conceptualization
of an idea and the first purchase order. This book seeks to utilize and build
upon these insights in order to facilitate the ability of all entrepreneurs to
create and deliver value to all relevant stakeholders.
All forms of entrepreneurship (business-to-business, business-to-
consumers, business-to-business-to-consumers, products, services, and
ideas) can benefit from the method proposed in this book. Lets take,
for example, a business-to-consumer setting, such as a retail store. Just
because customers walk in does not mean they will necessarily spend
money before they leave. They might have previously visited other stores
and may be planning to visit more stores before making up their minds.
In this process, the quality and variety of options, coupled with the quality of interaction with sales associates, affect what and where they buy.
That same entrepreneur may need to apply selling principles in order to
persuade suppliers and other collaborators to provide a relatively small
quantity of quality product at favorable payment terms. This is particularly true when the size of the new venture does not meet the minimum
requirement of suppliers and manufacturers. Persuading manufacturers in
this context requires a solid sales process and selling skills. In the case of
social entrepreneurship, the need to obtain resources and convince potential collaborators of the merit of an entrepreneurial idea calls for sales
skills and methodology.
The following chapters will explore the various challenges faced by
entrepreneurs when trying to gain support (i.e., commitments and buyins) for a new product or idea. The entrepreneurs we interviewed over
the course of our study represent a myriad of industries and from every
corner of the earth, and each has offered unique insights and strategies for
handling such challenges. Our goal in sharing their experiences, as well as
our own findings, is to balance support for entrepreneurs creativity and
passion with solid business principles.

Index
Accounts receivable, 89
Advisers, 41, 67
Approach phase of Yes
articulating story, 3436
audience, 33
creativity, 3940
gatekeepers, 36
knowing geography, 3637
making appointment, 3233
strategy, 3739
Board members, 41, 67
Business plans, 8284
Channels, 4142, 6768
Chinese symbol for listen, 52
Closing a deal
how to close, 7273
when to close, 7172
Convince phase of Yes, 4044
advisers, 41
board members, 41
channels, 4142
employees, 42
existing customers, 42
financial institutions, 42
investors, 43
partners, 43
suppliers, 43
talent, 4344
Customer development, 7
Customers, 42, 68
Deliver phase of Yes, 44
Direct approach, closing sale, 72
Employees, 42, 68
Engagement, 45
Entrepreneur-friendly sales model,
1517
Entrepreneurial endeavor, 5

Entrepreneurs, 4
characteristics, 56
definition of, 9
Entrepreneurship
forms of, 4
frameworks for, 8
pillars of, 8
Ethics, 9091
Financial institutions, 42, 68
First sale
importance of, 1012
think beyond, 93
Getting appointments, 85
Idea modification, 8182
Identify phase of Yes, 2931
Indirect approach, closing sale, 7273
Industry-specific tradeshows, 79
Investors, 43, 68
Listening, 5156
Market dynamics and competition,
8889
Marketing channels, 7779
Metrics, 7374
Misconceptions
business plans, 8284
idea modification, 8182
prototyping, 8182
New venture sales model,
inadequacies, 1315
Nonverbal signals, 7172
Objections
advisers, 67
board members, 67

106 Index

channels, 6768
customers, 68
employees, 68
entrepreneurs credibility, 6062
financial institutions, 68
investors, 68
partners, 69
price, 6365
product efficacy, 5859
prospects, 69
size, 6263
suppliers, 69
switching cost, 6567
talent, 69
Organizational ability, 8990
Partners, 43, 69
Prototyping, 8182
Qualify phase of Yes, 3132
Questioning prospects, 4649
Questioning yourself, 4951
Right questions, asking, 4649
Sales challenges and responses
accounts receivable, 89
ethics, 9091
getting appointments, 85
market dynamics and competition,
8889
organizational ability, 8990
resources for growth and scale up,
8788
selling experience or skill, 8687

Sales model
entrepreneur-friendly, 1517
inadequacies, 1315
Sales team, 95
Selling
always be, 9395
definition of, 10
description of, 3, 9
marketing channels, 7779
never give up, 9899
resources for growth and scale up,
8788
skills/experiences, 8687
staying true to values, 9698
tradeshow, 79
what should be, 25
when should I start, 1920
to whom, 2022
who should be, 1719
who should I not sell to?, 2224
Six Phases of Yes
approach, 3240
convince, 4044
deliver, 44
identify, 2931
qualify, 3132
stay in touch, 44
Stay in touch phase of Yes, 44
Suppliers, 43, 69
Talent, 4344, 69
Tradeshow selling, 79
Value equation, 82
Verbal signals, 71