Have you ever considered that being in sales is really about being in business for yourself? Like any business, you sell a product or service that serves a need. You are responsible for marketing your product or service, yourself and the company. Your success at bringing in customers results in making more money. You are building a clientele that will hopefully do additional business with you or will refer their friends. These are the exact same things that you do when you are building a business.
Being in sales works just like a franchise. From the “franchise,” you get access to a product, support, and some general marketing materials like brochures and maybe advertising. In exchange for all this, you give away some of your margins in time, effort, and resources. Just like a business, what’s left over is profit. When you hit really big numbers by watching your margin, you get really big profits or commissions. Once you understand this concept, your entire perspective will change. You will have a completely different attitude about what you are doing.
Successful businesses understand that the bottom line is the bottom line. In your business, you need to stay focused on profit. Everything else is secondary. If you’re not making a profit, you won’t be in business to worry about the other things that compete for your time. Having a backlog of potential business is comforting, but you need to generate sales consistently to keep the doors open. This means balancing the type of prospects and customers you are working with. You need to constantly create new leads and follow up on old ones for your business to be successful.
Every business needs capital to make it run. So in sales, what is the capital that you are using in your business? It’s YOU. Your capital is what you bring to the job. It is your labor, effort, knowledge, and experience. It is your emotional investment and commitment. This is the capital your sales business needs to run properly. Some people start off with the wrong attitude or with a lack of knowledge. They are undercapitalized and often go belly up and quit sales. Some get lucky with early success and make it by “bootstrapping.” They figure out what it takes to be successful, and they pull themselves up by the bootstraps to make it happen. However, they may never find true success or enjoy their jobs. Other experienced salespeople fail to stay competitive. They quit studying and believe that “they have heard it all before.” One morning they wake up and find that their business is suffering because they lack what it takes to be competitive. Like established businesses that are unwilling to embrace change, they will also ultimately fail. What can you do for yourself to add capital to your business?
Another major reason new and established businesses fail is because of poor management. It is amazing to me the number of businesses that are driving fast and hard but have no earthly idea where they are going. They don’t have a business plan that guides their decisions. Nobody in their right minds would invest their money in a business they didn’t believe in or that didn’t have a plan. Can you imagine such a foolish venture? But when you think about it, there are thousands of salespeople who invest every day of their lives in a business they don’t believe in. All of us serve other people in our business, but being the captain of your own ship is the best way to get where you want to go. For me, having a plan I could believe in turned out to make one of the biggest differences in my sales business.
When you start treating sales as your business franchise, you will see a big difference too. Watch your margins and stay focused on the bottom line. Make sure you are investing in yourself, your capital in your business. Manage your time well and have a plan for your business. These are the things successful businesses do and also the things that will make you successful in sales.
Guest Blogger
Raymond Cardinale, Summit Learning Systems
