The ultimate goal of any entrepreneur is to have people buying stuff from you. Our job as entrepreneurs is move our brand from a position of selling, to place where people come to buy. This takes time and continuous refinement of whatever we make, do or market. Truly successful brands don’t really sell stuff – it’s bought.
As Gitomer would say:
People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.
And so the most profitable sales interactions are defined by the audience. Women tend to say ‘They bought a pair of shoes’. Not that the shoes were sold to them.
Startups should remember – We start out selling, in the hope that it evolves into buying.