I love small businesses and their owners. I spend much of my day marveling at the great accomplishments of this hearty bunch of entrepreneurs who pursue their dream and formulate the backbone of our business society. They are the lifeblood of this country. there is a soft spot in my heart for the struggles they endure as well as the challenges they must overcome to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, some small business owners fuel problems that don’t have to exist by focusing more on their product or service than their sales force. Having quality products and services is only half the goal; the other half is the development a high performing sales staff to present them in the marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had an enlightening conversation with a small business owner recently about the current downward state of his business and the options he was exploring to reverse the trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked, “How many of your company problems would disappear if your sales staff would sell more of your products?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His response startled me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All of them,” he said, “but there’s nothing I can do about that right now. My sales force is telling me that we have to ride it out and hope we can survive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first thought was, “Do you realize that your sales force is doing a better job selling you this idea than they are selling your prospects on a reason to do business with you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, this dialogue happens all too frequently due to the complexity of our new business environment and the complacency of some salespeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disturbing fact was that the business owner felt helpless to do anything to remedy the situation and was willing to accept what the salespeople were telling him as gospel. Low and mediocre performing sales teams are conspiring to keep their jobs by convincing their bosses that it’s not them, rather like Clinton said to Bush during the 1992 election, “It’s the economy, stupid.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reality, there is a shared commitment for success that both business owner and salesperson must accept. Here are some specific actions that the can be taken to guide sales teams to greater success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is your sales force holding your future hostage? Many business owners choose to avoid this question because it’s a difficult one to ask, but the answer is the key to true entrepreneurial success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love small businesses and their owners. I spend much of my day marveling at the great accomplishments of this hearty bunch of entrepreneurs who pursue their dream and formulate the backbone of our business society. They are the lifeblood of this country. there is a soft spot in my heart for the struggles they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1033,1035,1103,1359,1049],"class_list":["post-11500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-leadership","tag-management","tag-motivation-mindset","tag-sales-accountability","tag-sales-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n