The biggest problem small businesses have is selling, says Howard Stevenson, a serial entrepreneur, professor emeritus of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, and the author or editor of 11 books on entrepreneurship. “A lot of people are afraid of selling. I’ve tried to convince schools that selling is important, but try to find a course on sales management in a major university. It’s a hole in everybody’s practical education,” Stevenson says. In his new book, Getting to Giving, Stevenson poses four questions that he thinks entrepreneurs should use to inform their sales strategy and improve it.

1. Why is your product or service important to your customers? It sounds simplistic, but too many small business people never determine why a potential client approaches them, Stevenson says. If they don’t fundamentally understand the customer’s needs, they can’t be effective in fulfilling them. And don’t be surprised if even the customer doesn’t know what they truly are, he says.

“This is where you stop talking and start listening,” Stevenson says. “Someone who goes to a money manager may want to get a multiple of capital; others want intergenerational transfer of wealth. One customer at a stationery store wants commodity copier paper and another wants colored tissue. If you’re trying to sell cars, does the customer want to do long-distance travel or get parking in Cambridge?”

Once the customer understands what she needs, the small business owner can show her how his product fills that need. “And if it doesn’t, don’t waste their time,” Stevenson says.

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