Sell Block You're a great business owner, but how good of a salesperson are you? Read these tips if you want to improve your less-than-stellar sales skills.

"First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a setof steak knives. Third prize is you're fired." These wordsare from the über-sales movie Glengarry Glen Ross, asthe sales force gets chewed out for weak performance. But as anentrepreneur, you don't even get a set of Ginsus when you losea sale-you're just outta luck.

So what do you do when you get a strong lead on a prospect whoneeds exactly what you offer? You meet; you present; you bond. Yousend a proposal that includes competitive pricing and animplementation plan. Next thing you know, you've lost theaccount to a competitor, perhaps even a more expensive provider.What went wrong? Most likely, it's your sales skills, or lackthereof.

The good news is, poor sales skills are quite a common-andfixable-dilemma. Through self-teaching, sales courses, andtrial and error, many entrepreneurs are able to take their salesfrom tepid to terrific. I talked to Azriela Jaffe, author ofStarting from No: 10 Strategies to Overcome your Fear ofRejection and Succeed in Business (Dearborn, $17.95, www.isquare.com/crlink.htm), to get some tips forturning around sales malaise.