"What Business Are You In?"
by Steve Clark
Most sales people and for that matter everyone else in business answers this question wrongly. They say things like they are in the computer business or the insurance business or the ___??____ business. All wrong answers of course. And because of this they allocate time and do behaviors that don’t contribute to their financial success.
The real and only answer to this question is that you are in the business of getting and keeping customers. Period! End of sentence. If you think you are in any other business you are misguided and will spend your time doing non-income producing behavior. Your income will suffer, your lifestyle will suffer and you will live out your retirement years broke or dependent on the generosity of others or the government for your subsistence.
This may sound harsh to some of you, but hey, the world is a harsh place and quite frankly, the world could care less about you or your existence.
The other day on a coaching call, a sales management client told me of discovering four hot leads, provided as referrals by a good customer that had laid around with no follow up and without acknowledgment to the customer providing the referrals for two weeks. When challenged, the salesperson to whom these leads had been given said she just hadn’t “gotten around to” handling them. My client asked me what he should do about this. I said he needed “to get around to” firing the sales person sometime soon. Like yesterday. He then defended this person. So I suggested he fire himself too. And hung up. There were 3 minutes left in his 20-minute sales management coaching call, but I didn’t care.
In my sales training and sales management coaching business, I find a need to give this lecture to business owners and managers all of the time. I call it ‘What Business Are We In?' and 'What Are Our Priorities?'.
Here’s how it goes:
1. Take care of any customer complaint or issue the day it comes in. No excuses!
2. Get money. Any money that can be gotten, from anybody, by any means, dropping anything else you are doing. Respond to opportunities to get money immediately if not sooner.
3. Get money. Any money that can be gotten, from anybody, by any means, dropping anything else you are doing. Respond to opportunities to get money immediately if not sooner.
4. Keep the customers you’ve got.
5. Get money. Any money that can be gotten, from anybody, by any means, dropping anything else you are doing. Respond to opportunities to get money immediately if not sooner. Did I mention? – get money. It’s easy to forget you are in the money-getting business, and think that’s just one of many tasks and activities and responsibilities you have. Obviously, money-getting means different things in different businesses. You need clarity about it in yours. Then nothing gets priority.
You can make excuses or you can make money but you can’t do both. And anybody good at doing the first isn’t good at the second. But there can be no accepted excuse for drifting away from money-getting as job-one. How toughminded you are about this, with self and others, will determine your prosperity or lack thereof far, far, far, far, far more than any clever advertising or marketing campaign or whether or not you tweet.
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"Entrepreneur and Executive Sales Coach, Steve Clark publishes the highly acclaimed "Tips for Profitable Persuasion" weekly ezine. If you're ready to explode your sales and skyrocket your income while working less get your FREE copy at www.newschoolselling.com."
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