You didn't know this about me...

Can you be an entrepreneur without being a salesperson? I hate standing face to face negotiating a price. I admit that in this 2011 video, recorded at a garage sale at our friends’ home in the USA.

An entrepreneur without being a salesperson: Perhaps that’s surprising

Our friends Nina and Morten were leaving the USA, and we joined them to sell the kids’ toys. A garage sale is a way to get rid of the things you aren’t taking with you.

My wife liked trading with people. Morten threw himself into it too. I mainly wanted to stay in the background. Just someone asking me what something cost could leave me completely paralysed.

It’s not that I don’t like people. I love giving talks, sharing experiences and giving something to others. But standing there selling my own things and discussing the price is far outside my comfort zone.

I never came to like telesales

I’ve actually tried telesales at the newspaper Aktuelt. I lasted a week. Afterwards, I promised myself I’d never call anyone to sell something again.

I think that’s also one reason I like trading online. I can set a price without having to stand in front of a customer and negotiate it.

Find people who complement you

I’ve still been able to build businesses. I have good business partners who know how to sell. That’s my own experience: You don’t have to be good at every part of a company.

You’re welcome to work on what you find difficult. But you can also find people who complement your abilities instead of believing your dislike of one form of selling shuts the door on entrepreneurship.

Also read the story of sticking with the dream with Amino Plus.

An entrepreneur without being a salesperson: My garage sale experience

Nina and Morten and their kids were leaving the USA around the same time as us, but a month earlier. So they held a proper American garage sale. We joined them to sell the kids’ toys and see how it was actually done.

It’s a big thing in the USA, where people move a lot. You advertise on Craigslist, which I compared with Den Blå Avis, and put signs by the main road so people can find their way to the garage. Then you put out all the stuff you want to get rid of.

People were knocking an hour or two before opening. They wanted first pick, and of course there was haggling. If you said two dollars, you could expect someone to suggest 25 cents. But the aim was also to get rid of the things.

This was where I wanted to share a little secret. I think many people imagine I love standing somewhere like that trading. Not for the money, because you don’t earn much, but because they think I enjoy talking to people and negotiating back and forth.

Five dollars. No, two. Then four. You might think that was exactly my thing. But I hate it. I truly hate standing in front of people selling my own things.

I could barely get two dollars out

I cringed more than if I were watching Frank Hvam in Klovn. It was so far outside my comfort zone I could barely stand it. In the video, I called it a phobia because the aversion felt so strong.

I didn’t want my children to pick up the same reaction. My wife liked trading, so I tried to stay in the background. I walked around looking at things with everyone else instead of selling.

Just someone coming over to ask what something cost could leave me paralysed. I could barely stammer out two dollars. Perhaps I should work on that one day. But right then, I just wanted to escape it.

Morten was completely different. He could start with a price of 50 dollars, get an offer of 25 and reply that the customer could have it for 49. Then it went back and forth. He went for it, and my wife also thought it was great fun.

I mainly wanted to call the bulky waste collection and say: Take the whole bloody lot. That would have been bad environmentally, and of course we didn’t do it. But it says something about how little I wanted to do the selling itself.

One week in telesales was enough

It wasn’t only at the garage sale I felt that way. I’d once worked in telesales at Bladet Aktuelt, back when the newspaper still existed. I actually don’t think many people knew that.

I lasted a week and called around 20 people. Perhaps I sold something; I never really found out. But afterwards, I promised myself I’d never, ever call someone to sell something again. I’d kept that promise.

I said very bluntly that I’d rather be a bag lady by I-95 than stand selling to people. It wasn’t because I looked down on sales work. I simply couldn’t bear doing it, either on the phone or face to face.

I love the conversation, just not negotiating the price

I love giving talks. I love giving things to people, standing and talking and sharing experiences. To me, that’s completely different from standing with a product and having to discuss the price.

That’s probably also one reason I like trading online so much. There, I can set a price and avoid looking customers in the eye and negotiating back and forth.

So can you become a successful entrepreneur while hating selling? You can judge for yourself whether you think I’m successful. I wasn’t a multibillionaire, but I ate three meals a day, which was probably obvious, as I joked in the video.

I also had perfectly good business partners who knew how to sell. I couldn’t do that myself. So now you know something about me that may surprise you: There are parts of running a business I really don’t like. You’ll find more of my experiences of building businesses in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

Take care and have a great weekend!

Best wishes, Martin