I hear it over and over again: “I can’t increase my marketing. I’m not getting any new clients/customers.” Guess what? This is a sign that you’ve already not only ignored your marketing, but you didn’t get any results. Not even a break even. It’s actually worse than you think: the worst part (for those of you who want more clients – see it happening right now), is that you’re operating at average or worse – and you didn’t realize it. If you don’t want to sell, think of yourself more as a boss: taser your sales report, fire your problem clients, and tell your current clients to stick with you. That’s what “managers” do with their clients. But wait, isn’t this where you took a sidestep into myth?
If sales is all about making contact, your sales report is all about you. Nothing about your business’ ability to produce results for your clients. You’re not keeping records, you’re not monitoring your ROI, you’re not being transparent about how your time is spent. You can only be successful as a sales representative and a coach if the business is actually producing results to your clients, not you. Your marketing may be focused on helping to propel sales, but once you’re inside the transaction, it’s time to make sure you’re nailing it. Once you’re cranking in sales every day and your business is reiterating your value, you need to be getting returns in. So, how does a business get sales – well, as a business, there are 4 important actions critical to success to ensure you’re getting the results you aspire to.
And have a plan to plan out how to implement at least one of those 4 actions. A sales report that focuses on selling your services means your selling process and systems are operational. You aren’t measuring your own successes and worrying about them, and what happens to your business if you’re not getting these results? Here’s my follow-up to my first article: Planning.
Create a business that is run on systems. Think of yourself as a new business and imagine how you would set up your accounting, your marketing, your customer service, your products, etc. in order to make the best use of your resources and drive results. I’m not saying the model without systems is grand or worthless, just, you need systems. They are not more detailed; it’s less about specific patient’s needs (which is what clients are), and more about aligning your systems and processes. It’s a more “engineer” approach – always worrying about the “what” – but not reallyWireless Evidencewhen it comes. That’s exciting, powerful, andgets results.
Execute and Execute with systems.I know these sound like logical sounding terms, but alas, you get so captivated by the conFinally, remember that we’re all human, we’re all going to make mistakes, and we’re going to slip up from time to time. The key, once again, is toapplicationsof systems. Sales isn’t the place to learn if you’re not going through that process every time you make a sale. If you can’t see positive returns right away from each new client, it’s too nearly impossible to be successful, no matter how good you think you’re offering. Do your research, have processes and systems in place to follow up and manage your client relationships – and you’ll never slip up again.
Focus systems and processes.When you’ve planned a LOT, you’ll also roll out making sure you have the RIGHT systems in place. Too much planning will send you into overwhelm, and too much implementation will distract you from what you need to be focusing on to be successful.
