When Do You Quit Selling? Never.

Selling Is Everywhere, Even At Home.

I repair broken business models.  They are everywhere.  The last one I was hired to repair was the one in the worst shape when I arrived.  Both legs of that business were in the grave.

One of the most important components to perform of any business model is to learn how to sell.  The best example of the importance this step requires will be seen in a really broken business model.  The need to sell at all times, all people, is most noticeable in a broken business model.  The first people who need to be sold all of the time are the owners of the business model.  They need to be sold how well their business model 'can' do.  They will need to be sold that philosophy every moment they think about how tough it is digging themselves out of the terrible whole they have created.  That kind of selling will need to be constant.  Convince, convince, convince.

The second most important group that needs to be sold on a constant basis is the staff.  The people who meet and share time with the customers will need to be sold about how well this business model will perform.  The staff are in the trenches and need some convincing tools to help arm them while they work with the disappointed customers.  Broken business models do not have a great and happy consumer base.  That is why they are broken.  Supplies are always out of stock.  Equipment does not work well.  Tools are limited and usually old or broken.  Consumer inventory is out-dated, short in quantity of supply and usually consists of off-brand products nobody recognizes.  The staff will be faced with uphill battles, everyday.  They need to be sold well to do their job well.  All of the time.  Convince, convince, convince.

The next group in line that needs to be sold on a constant basis are the product suppliers.  In the last messed up model not one of their suppliers allowed that business model to buy anything on credit.  All relationships were broken.  Every supplier wanted cash on the barrel before they would drop any inventory off for that business to sell.  The first thing I began to do when I arrived is call each supplier on the phone and find out who made the real decisions of the credit policies for that supplier.  Who actually made the decisions to allow credit to occur.  Not always is that decision made by the owner for that supplier.  Most would assume this to be true, but I have discovered many suppliers have a single person who has become 'in-charge' of that irresponsibility.  Often times, it is not the owner.  I called everyone of those 'gate keepers' and began developing a level of trust they could count on for opening a very small line of credit to use in our efforts to purchase inventory.  They needed to be 'sold' on the idea.  Convince, convince, convince.

Keep in mind, when you are selling ideas, concepts, promises, products, services, philosophies and yourself you will not always be successful in convincing your listener to actually buy what you are selling.  Some are not interested in your story.  If some of those people who are not interested in your 'story' are on your staff, get rid of them.  Keep selling.  Just go find a new buyer!  Hire someone else who will listen to how you plan to make it happen and how they are going to be an important part of that plan.  The right listeners are out there.  Keep on selling.  Convince, convince, convince.  You will attract, attract, attract.  Never quit selling.

The reason why a broken business model is the best example of providing the need to always be selling something is that they are the type of model that does not believe in anything good.  They have too much evidence stacked against them.  They have been beaten to death and are headed in the wrong mental direction.  Some serious constants need to be employed with regard to convincing them to improve how they view how well they can perform.  They need to be convinced against the evidence they see.  They need to be sold.  They need to be sold to buy a mental process that does not yet exist.  Selling this process never quits.  When the selling dies, the process dies.  Convince, convince, convince.

The next group that needs to be sold is the banking support.  The people who process your money are the most important people you need to convince.  You better start selling their gatekeepers right now.  Get to know who those gatekeepers are and begin developing some very trusting relationships with them so they can go to bat for your efforts.  You will need to do some very interesting things with your money management and to have the confidence of the banking support will come in handy down the terrible trail you are planning to walk.  You will need to convince those bank gatekeepers that you are the right one to handle the money management issues you plan to use to repair that model with its ugly evidence.  You will need to quit bouncing checks immediately.  That activity must absolutely go away.  Never bounce another check, regardless of how bad your situation is financially.  Never bounce another check, ever.  Find some other pain to deal with, but never bounce another check.  Zero.  It will be the best step you can make to begin convincing your bank that you are the one.  It is part of how you sell them who you are.  Bank keepers need to trust in your accountability.  This is the first thing they look at to determine your accountability.  If you cannot get this first basic thing down, you will not be able to sell them more complicated things later.  Convince, convince, convince.

Now we need to improve the selling process to our agencies.  The tax people who are hounding you.  The accountants who are not getting paid.  The landlords who have accepted late and short payments.  The service industries like utilities and equipment maintenance business models all have a history with your recent slow paying past that need some selling repair.  Make some corrections in how your business model does what it does so you can improve upon the uses required as you share what you do with those services they provide.  Begin a tiny payment plan with those who have not seen any money and routinely issue that tiny payment plan to help you sell them how your efforts will be able to correct this process at a later date when times are better.  You will need to convince, convince and convince.  They need to be sold on that plan.

Selling never quits.  Keep in mind, we have not yet seen any customers in this example.  Your business model is and will be successful when you learn how to sell all of the time, all of the things that it does, with all of the sources that it does its business with and who serve it in what it does.  When you learn the art of "never quit selling" you will help to ensure that all of the right things behind the scenes are performing well so the things you do for your customers can be done well.  When your customers arrive they can count on you because all of the backside things are properly in place doing exactly what they need to be doing to support how well you treat the customers that arrive.  This process will make or break you.  The selling ability you provide will help you to overcome the obstacles that naturally occur in the management process of this complex backside tasking.  It is vital for your business to understand the importance of this effort.  You need to 'get it' on this one.  When you sell your customers, no backside challenges need to appear.  Customers hate backside interference's.  They look like disservice to them.  They make your business model look like poor service.  They make your business model appear insensitive.

Sell Your History, Sell Who You Are

Learn the art of always selling what you plan to do.  This art will help you establish how well you need to perform.  If you have a habit of skipping this process in your business model, you are not growing your business.  I do not need to see your numbers to prove that point.  Your numbers will follow this truth.  If you are not performing in your business model in this fashion, selling and more selling, your model is struggling.  Your numbers are reflecting how well you sell in everything you do and touch.

Poor numbers reflect poor selling.  Average numbers reflect average selling.  Good numbers reflect good selling.  Excellent numbers reflect excellent selling.  It is that simple.  When I was hired to fix the last business model, the one with two feet in the grave, I knew one thing for sure.  It had some poor selling going on, in all phases.  I also knew that the backside selling would be the most important step I would need to employ.  A bunch of repair would need to occur on the backside of the model in order for the customer to receive the kind of service they require.  Some serious selling would need to take place to make that happen.

When do you quit selling?  Never.

Keep in mind, we still have not yet reached the art of selling our customers what we do.  We have not begun to sell the customers yet!

Everything we do requires us to sell.  Every policy we change needs to be sold to accept.  Every step we design needs to become part of why we convince others to do what we prefer to do.  We must sell the process to those who perform it.  We must sell the trust to those who provide it.  We must convince the leaders to lead properly.  We must convince the followers to follow properly.  Selling is what we do the best and what we do the most.  We sell, sell, sell.

If you hate selling, you will not become very good at owning a business.  Business owners are salespeople.  They must always be selling something.  It is a forever process that never stops.  A business owner who hates to be called a 'salesperson' is an owner who does not understand who they are.  Owners sell who they are and what they do.  Good ones do better than bad ones.  It is not very complicated.  We complicate it unnecessarily.  We naturally have some kind of hatred for salespeople when we are one.  We convince, convince, convince.  We sell, sell, sell.

The owners who do this process best are the owners who have the best business results.  If you want to improve your business model, find the areas your business suffers the most and begin learning how to 'sell' its improvements.  If you are selling apples, you will need to go get some apples.  If you do not sell apples, there is no need to go get some apples.  If you want to bring efficiency to your warehouse staff, learn how to sell efficiency.  When you sell efficiency well enough they will need to go get some efficiency.  It is the same thing as selling apples.  Efficiency will not happen until they need to go get some.  Apples will not happen until you need to go get some.  This is a simple process to see.  Sell it first, then have them find out where to get it.  When the need for more apples surfaces, more apples will be what you buy.  When the need for more efficiencies arrives, they will go find more efficiencies.  It is the same thing.  Learn how to sell what you want done.  Never quit selling.

Your business model needs some improvements somewhere.  Find out where you can improve and begin selling how it can be done.  This is exactly how you build a better business model.

Learn how to improve your selling skills.  Your business model is waiting.

Until next time...