written by john c ashworth
I've heard Mark Cuban say it on Shark Tank; and I've heard and read this idea in many other places too...
"Sales cure a lot of ills."
In other words, when all else fails, focus on selling. Because if you're not selling anything, you're not really doing anything to make your company grow. Thrive.
As a salesman myself, I agree with this with all my might.
Here's why...
First of all, any time I find myself where I'm not selling enough, it's almost always because I've lost my focus and have gotten lost in the weeds. Working on things day to day that are important on some level, but not nearly as vital as my focus on selling. When I find myself here, I focus on one simple question...
"What do I need to do right now to make my next sale?" ...and I was tempted to write, 'sales', but that's an important distinction too. I don't want to focus on the next two or three or ten sales. Just the next one. Because that's the most important one. Always!
That's it. And I don't stop until I've made that sale happen.
Sometimes I do get lost. We all do. All that old head trash takes constant management. Constant discipline. But eventually and usually after not too long, I find my way back to that one simple focus question. How am I going to get my next sale? Not my next three sales. My next one and that's it.
There's nothing like a sale to get you back on track. The focus and the energy a successful sale fosters is an amazing trip. An energizing shot of adrenalin pumped into your heart that fills you with a sense of hope, courage, happiness and fulfillment. After all, as a salesman, that what I'm here to do. Help you buy something that will solve your problem and improve your life and business. In turn, my business and my income grow too.
This is why nine out of ten businesses fail. They don't have good marketing and they don't know how to sell.
So, when you're business is struggling and you have many problems to address and you don't know where to begin, keep your focus on sales, because sales cure a lot of ills. They breed an energy inside your business that is contagious and infectious. Sales pay the bills and the salaries of those who generate and support them. Sales bring you customers, relationships and friends that you can nurture and extend to more connections, forever. Sales is the heart of your business. You MUST embrace this idea. And then you MUST integrate these efforts with your marketing. The two are intertwined, and that's a story for another day.
Sales rule the land and your business because nothing happens until a sale is made. And if sales are not happening then something is wrong, and you need to fix it right away, because everything you do inside your business either increases or decreases sales.
EVERYTHING!
Can you buy into this idea? I sure hope so. Because everything you're doing inside your business either attracts and keep customers or drives them away.
That's why sales has the potential to cure so many ills in your business. To sell more, you have to do more of the right things, more of the time. Focusing on sales helps you focus on the right stuff.
When you focus on sales you will end up focusing on EVERYTHING you can do to drive more of them and then prevent losing them. When you do this, the problems that are plaguing your business will become more evident and clear to you and you will be able to begin identifying and solving them more efficiently. Thus driving even more sales.
OK, enough reading.
Go make sale!
-John
