Sell for Profit

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

What is your attitude concerning selling? How well do you sell? Are you selling for profit?

Let’s explore this topic together in today’s devotional:

No one ever succeeded in business without selling something. As a Biblical Entrepreneur, the key to your success is how well you can sell the product or service that you produce. Unfortunately, many people look down on selling or are afraid to sell because of how they believe others will view them.

Selling is not bad; it is an opportunity to provide something of value to someone who needs it in exchange for something of greater value. The Prophet Elisha instructed the widow in 2 Kings 4:7 to go to the marketplace and sell her oil for profit. She was then able to achieve her financial goals through the sales she made.

Everyone sells something; it is the key to natural provision. You either sell your talents to an employer or sell them to a customer. Believe it or not, you are only a number of sales away from your financial victory. What are the product and service that you have which can be sold for profit?

Here are seven things to keep in mind to be an effective salesperson:

1. Know your product or service – You can’t sell something you do not know. Develop a knowledge base of your product or service; this will enable you to know how to present it to the customer or how it can best serve the customer.
2. Believe in your product or service – Never sell anything you do not believe in. Belief in your product builds personal confidence which is a draw to the customer.
3. Be persuaded that the product or service meets a temporal and/or eternal need/godly desire in the customer’s life – Though selling is a tool to generate money to meet your natural needs, you don’t want to sell just to meet your natural needs. You want to sell because you are persuaded that your product or service meets a need in someone’s life. It is not about you, it is about the customer. If you meet the needs of the customer, your needs will automatically be met.
4. Ensure that the customer is ripe for harvesting – Many times we try to force a sale and therefore appear to the customer like a used car salesman. You must be able to discern the readiness of the customer to purchase the product or service. A sale should never be forced, but rather it should happen very naturally. You need to be able to discern how ready for purchase the customer is.
5. Close the sale – Many people know how to make a sales presentation but have a hard time closing the sale. Closing the sale means to stop talking and allow the customer to ask the question, “How do I get this product or service?” Once the questions are asked, do not say more than necessary but rather just answer the question and bring the sale to a close.
6. Ask for the payment; “Show Me The Money” – The sales transaction is not complete until the customer has paid or made arrangements to pay for the product or service. This is where many believers get stuck as they are afraid to ask for the money. If you believe that your product or service has value and it meets a clear need in the customers’ life, then it would be unjust for them not to be given the opportunity to pay for it. That would be stealing. Do your customer a favor and ask for the payment.
7. Show appreciation – Once the customer has paid, let them know how much you appreciate their business. Remember, you are not doing the customer a favor. Every customer is a tool that God uses to keep you in business, meet your natural needs, and enable you to make a profit. Be grateful.

A sales transaction done well should generate a biblical profit. Biblical profit is the spiritual and natural gains after all costs are deducted from the income of the business or the revenue. To be unprofitable in a sales transaction is to be a bad steward. Without a profit, you will not be able to enhance your product or service, increase your capacity to produce, and most importantly fulfill God’s covenant.

Profit is not just something that is coveted by greedy salespeople, rather it is an essential part of the ministry of business. Every Biblical Entrepreneur that is unprofitable will not be able to fulfill God’s plan for their life and may even lose credibility as a believer. This is why Matthew 25:30 says that the master casts the unprofitable servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

My prayer for you today is that God will give you the grace to sell what you produce and the wisdom to do it profitably.