Referrals, Consulting, Collaboration, Proposals, Marketing; It’s Called Sales
In my signature presentation “Moving Forward,” I speak about how sometimes we get into a rut. We tend to go from the rut and dig ourselves a hole. You don’t want to get into that hole because then you’ll have to begin to climb out. The trick is realizing that you are digging that hole, and then to stop digging.
The last few weeks I’ve been busy networking, taking classes and running a new business. An obvious mistake we all make is thinking that if we are busy things are good. Not necessarily the case. It is great to be busy because we think that equals production. But does it? When running a business, we always need to remind ourselves of the importance of engaging in income-producing activities.
I pulled up a list of income producing activities and #1 was networking. Even though it didn’t seem like it to me at the time, the networking I’ve been doing is like planting seeds. I won’t see anything right now, but I’ll start to see sprouts in the coming months. I’ve been building relationships and continuing to reach out to folks to reconnect. All things that were on that incoming producing activities list.
What amused me most was nowhere on that list was the word SALES. I take that back, #13 was “Upselling Existing Clients” so “sell” was in there. But most of the words were referrals, consulting, collaboration, proposals, marketing, etc. As if the word SALES was a dirty word. I guess if you disguise yourself as a consultant, marketer or collaborator, you’re not really a salesperson.
Funny, because in all my years in advertising, I was a media BUYER. If I’m a BUYER, you can be dang sure SALESPEOPLE will be calling me. Now as an entrepreneur, I’m on the sales side. Luckily, I have decades of experience in the process (blog for another day). Unfortunately, I’m no longer the buyer, I am the seller. The phone is not ringing so I have to do the calling. I have to create the sales engine that will fuel the business.
Networking is part of that engine, but there are other parts to be primed. I’m not in the hole, actually, I’m really not even in a rut. I just need patience and to start on those other avenues of connection. Not getting into the hole on this one. What are your favorite proven SALES techniques? Let me hear from you!
#movingforward #incomeproducing #sales #networking
