Team Alpha 375

Grow Your Sales Business

By: Dan Jourdan

Your sales job is your business, and you are the boss. Remember, that's why you got into this world in the first place. This way, you can make your own hours and call your own shots. Sure you may have a quota to reach and some required meeting to go to, but as long as you are producing money for your company, they probably wouldn't care if you showed up. They need revenue, they need more customers, and so do you.

I know a sales manager in a stock brokerage firm that once said, "Other than owning your own business, sales was the quickest way to get wealthy." He had it half right; selling is a business and if you treat it that way, it will fill your pockets with gobs of loot.

Most of you, however, don't treat it that way. You go through the motions during working hours and forget about your day at closing time. You blame the customer for making the wrong decisions, and complain about your commission structure and the fact that "there is not enough time in the day".

That last one really kills me. Here's the answer; you have the same time as everyone else. The difference simply is that you can choose to spend that time or invest that time throughout your day.

A business owner invests his time and uses it to his advantage by learning, writing, reading, practicing, blogging, and networking. In a word, a person with a business is always prospecting. Remember, as a sales person, you are a business owner - and it's time for you to act like one:

1. Wake up early. The whole "early bird gets the worm" thing really works. You have time to plan your day, to think, and to beat whatever traffic is out there. An owner knows that being early gives you a distinct advantage over your competition and will make you more money.

2. Be creative. An owner knows that everyone has competition and nobody wins with a price war. Therefore, the new battlefield is uniqueness. The only place left without competition is your own mind and what you can think up and create. No one can compete with your thoughts. An owner comes up with ideas to get some buzz and does it...immediately!

3. Know who your boss is. I know I said that you are your own boss, but that may be a bit of a lie. You don't have a boss, you have many bosses - they are just called customers and they feed you and your family. They provide for every luxury that you have or will have, and they can fire you too. An owner will treat them with the reverence they deserve.

4. Be comfortable with change. Constant reading, learning, trying, and failing are all part of the job. I have a friend with a very successful snack and soda vending company that services several states. Twenty years ago, his biggest seller was Coke in the 7oz bottles. Today it is earphones out of a vending machine.

The salesman of yesterday is dead...but treating your sales job as a business will ensure that you will live to win in life.