“Everyone lives by selling something.”- Robert Louis Stevenson

If we as entrepreneurs buy into this, why don’t more of us embrace being in a regular sales training program?  Why don’t we ensure that our entire sales organization is enrolled in a sales force training program?  Why don’t we believe that training our sales managers is essential considering it’s a completely different skill set when compared to selling itself.  (Ever see a top producer get promoted to sales manager?  How’d that work out?)  Why don’t we all have highly successful coaches coaching us?  Bigger yet, why don’t most entrepreneurs do all the important things they need to do to win the game?  We know it can be done.  We see other companies do it.  But most don’t.

When I read this quote I just had to share it with our growing community of entrepreneurs.  I meet business owners and professionals all the time who tell us what they want.  They want more business.  They want more sales.  When I ask them what’s going on in terms of their planning, marketing and sales disciplines, I often get a lot of song and dance.

This is some of what my team and I hear too often.  For real.  “We’re doing okay for now.”  “I’m too busy making my widgets to worry about that stuff.”  “Got it covered.”  “Sales guy’s handling that.”  “We don’t believe in marketing.”  “We don’t have a budget right now.”  “I’m waiting for the economy to turn around.”  “I don’t need sales training.”  “I can’t afford a coach.” And so on.  Excuses.  Stories.  And all very real belief systems that retard the growth of enterprise.

Planning, marketing and selling are core disciplines for every successful business.  And there are plenty of companies that get it. The results are there to prove it. If you want a perfect example of this fly to Las Vegas and take a tour of the Zappos.com HQ.  Yeah, Amazon.com just bought them because Zappos.com was kicking their butts selling shoes online.  $1 billion in sales in about eight years.  Why?  Disciplined planning, marketing, sales and customer service.  They also have incredible leadership and management.  For example, the CEO, Tony Hsieh, sits in a cubicle too.  He returns emails and phone calls.  He’s really nice to people.  He talks to customers.  Yikes.  Imagine that.

In fact, I honestly believe everyone in every business ought to be deeply committed to learning and applying marketing and selling disciplines such as those of Zappos.com and other highly successful companies.  I mean this in the sense that we need to focus on answering the phones really well.  We need to have the products people want to buy when they’re ready to buy them.  We need to care what’s going on in other departments.  We need to focus on providing service that builds loyalty.  We need to really like what we do.  We need a defined sales process.  We need to market well.  We need to care more.  We need technology and systems that leverage time.  We need to offer killer return policies.  This stuff shows.  This stuff works if you work it.  And it pays off in a big way for companies that embrace discipline and customer-centric practices as part of their culture.

There are certainly many more exceptions to this.  People who get it.  Companies that prove it by their results.  Entrepreneurs who are growing their businesses despite the economic news.  They plan.  They market.  They sell.  They learn.  They grow.

WealthNet is growing thanks to the many referrals we continue to get from so many of you.  Thank you very much.  Because we are working with some incredible people, I plan to interview some of our clients so you can learn from what they’re doing that’s working well.  And from what’s not working well.  That counts for something.  So keep checking back here as I get these interviews and other content addes to the WealthNet blog.  Share your comments.  Ask us questions.  Keep spreading the WealthNet!

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
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