Becoming a well rounded business owner and operator means becoming proficient in many avenues. For eCommerce businesses and service providers, these avenues tend to form three routes. Sales, marketing, and design. Coming into ownership with one or even two is great, having all three is a significant advantage. As the owner, making all 3 skills part of your abilities is more important than the average person.

Sales Process

One of the skills that most business owners enter either having proficiency in, or lacking. There doesn’t tend to be much middle ground in this skill, mostly because partial sales don’t necessarily exist. You may have started the business because you sell really well, and wanted to go on your own. Perhaps you have a great product/service and just need to develop sales talent to make your fortune. Commonly viewed as a people person skill, sales can be extremely technical.

What makes sales more technical than expected is because so much of sales work is done ahead of time. Research into what your customer/client want to know, what they need and more. Having the previous experience and knowledge will make the sale that much easier.

Marketing Process

Often confused to be in the sales process, though marketing is a skill in its own right. While sales is represented as the end of the consumer funnel, marketing is the beginning. Spreading the word, bringing in potential customers, and strategizing are all aspect of marketing. I could go on about marketing being too broad of a process to be just one skill, but I value your time and I have a deadline.

Strategizing the process needed to take your business to the next level can often require trial and error. Bringing in leads will be slow at first. Numbers and analytics will be your best friend in this process, but don’t be afraid to trust your gut.

Design Process

As I stated above, sales is the end of the funnel and marketing is the beginning, design is about how the funnel looks. Creative design, color palette, imagery, copy, and so much more fall under this umbrella. Ranging from the extremely complex to the bare bones minimalist, design is more than just Instagram posts and some photoshop. How does the website flow, is the theme consistent across all branding, does the objective and strategy line up with content.

How they Merge

Bringing all three of these skill together, is called business ownership. But more seriously these skills create well rounded business ownership. No guarantees for success, the market will determine that, though they can make you more prepared for what the market dictates. Dip in sales, change the strategies you use to acquire customers. Less engagement, alter creative or organic media strategy. Being prepared for what’s next, or even determining it will keep you ahead of the competition.