The key to good salesmanship is being all things to all people. A good salesman can quickly determine what kind of person he’s dealing with and what they care about so that he can best address the need in a demeanor that the customer best connects with. To some of us, it sounds like a rather complicated process, but for the natural salesman, such a line of thought is complete intuitive, which is what makes salesmen so good at what they do. And that skill is a great asset in the world of business; it puts a number of business opportunities at a person’s fingertips that would not have otherwise been there, even in the world of home business. If you naturally have this knack for interpersonal communication and sales, as well as an entrepreneurial spirit, here are 7 franchises that would be a perfect match for your sales slant.

Selling a Product

The most intuitive variety of sales is product sales, in which the salesman has a physical object that he’s selling to his clients; there is a clear exchange of money for item. Many such work at home businesses are founded on this simple concept of exchange, and they can prove to be quite profitable in the right hands. 3 such businesses are TVME Inc, Vehicle Tracking Solutions, and Air Advantage.

TVME Inc’s success is built entirely on the sales of computerized media centers designed for use in restaurant, entertainment facilities, and retail establishments. Places like bowling alleys and family fun centers need to have a centralized storehouse of all their overhead music and video media for use every day of operation, so the system that TVME Inc provides is definitely a needed commodity. All it takes is someone with enough sales panache to build an ever-expanding client base and keep up relationships with existing clients.

Vehicle Tracking Solutions and Air Advantage are slightly different in that they sell both technological products and the services necessary to run them. Vehicle Tracking Solutions is the only franchised provider of GPS tracking equipment for company vehicles. Franchisees stand almost entirely alone in a market that has barely been tapped, selling products and associated networking services that are in high demand. Likewise, Air Advantage is the only business of its kind, selling necessary technology and wireless internet service to one of the biggest, untapped, high-speed internet markets: rural America. Both of these exceptional companies have a product that is in high demand and a proven system for success, so all they need is the skilled salesman/entrepreneur to make it all come together in terms that the client will understand.

Selling a Service

The other side of the sales industry is the selling of services. Unlike selling a product, the sale of a service includes no straight exchange of goods; the client pays money for what the salesman is going to do for him. It’s just as profitable, though in some cases, it’s hard to tell exactly where the salesmanship comes into play.

WSI Internet is a perfect example of a service-selling home based business. The leader in providing internet marketing services to small and mid-sized businesses, WSI has proven itself time and time again as a master at using the web to advance a company’s advertising and public image. Though it doesn’t hurt that Entrepreneur Magazine has named them the #1 computer and internet franchise for the last seven years, it ultimately takes an excellent salesman to convince new clients that WSI lives up to the hype and can serve their marketing needs as well as it has all the businesses before.

In a similar vein, though completely different fields, ElizaJ and Virtuoso Music franchises also profit from an entrepreneur with a knack for sales. ElizaJ is the only franchise in the business of renting high-end portable restrooms for weddings and other outdoor events. Though the equipment is exceptional in both appearance and functionality (often including interior speakers for background music, as well as built-in air conditioning), a good salesperson will know what conventions to be at to advertise the product, what business connections to make with local wedding planners, and how to best relate to all potential clients. Likewise, though Virtuoso Music specializes in matching music students with music teachers in the area, a good Virtuoso Music salesman understands who his services most help and goes out of his way to connect with those people throughout the community. Fearless of rejection, the ElizaJ and Virtuoso Music franchisees put the importance of their services before the public eye and let them decide.

Finally, though it doesn’t seem as intuitively sales-oriented as the others, necessarily, DVDNow, one of the pioneers in the automated DVD rental revolution, is also a good fit for the natural salesman. Money with this work from home business is made when shoppers rent DVDs from an automated DVDNow vending kiosk, which takes no salesmanship, because the franchisee isn’t even present for the transaction. However, what does take salesmanship is finding locations for the kiosks and selling store owner and mall managers on the idea of having a DVDNow kiosk in their building. Whether you develop a monthly fee or simply convince them that the machine is good for their business, it will take skill.

Whether you prefer to sell objects, services, or both, there is a home based business that can put your natural inclinations to use. Browse around and find the business that you can really sell.


September 18, 2008