What Resources Do You Need to Increase Sales?
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: increase sales, sales coaching, sales plan“Don’t complain, don’t explain, just deal with it”
Henry Ford II
In a recent Geico commercial you seem to be spying on a sales meeting. One of the members of the meeting comments, “I suppose I could sell insurance if I were cute and green with an Australian accent too.” The ad reminded me how often I hear people make the excuse, “Well if I had (insert whatever supposed benefit you want) I could accomplish whatever the person with that benefit accomplished too.” As if the successful person had somehow been granted some special favor from the world.
No one is granted any special favors from anyone. Successful people take Henry Fords advice to heart they simply deal with whatever they are handed as it comes, and do whatever they have to do to work around it. There are no special miraculous skills or talents required for that.
As we continue working on your “Strategic Sales Master Plan” the next thing we need to consider is resources. I’ve yet to meet a single person who already has all the resources they want, or believe they need. Plus you probably can’t have every resource you can imagine, so let’s narrow those resources down to the most important resources you will need to produce the sales results you want.
Resources You Have vs. Resources You Need
There’s no need to make things complicated. Simply grab a sheet of paper and draw a line down the center. Label the left column “Resources I Have” and the right column “Resources I Need”. Now we need to evaluate what those resources might be. One way to do that is to think about the 5 critical factors and your particular goals for each factor.
Significance: Some resources you needed to develop significance include…
- Information & Knowledge - Required to help you identify who wants to know you and why.
- Money - The investments you will make to get your SOLUTION in front of the right people making it easy for those people to find you.
- Skill - The skill required to engage the right people and help them uncover their motivation to act.
- Manpower - The required man hours to set-up, implement, and follow-up with the approaches used to get your solution in front of the right people.
Connections: Some resources needed to develop connections include…
- Information & Knowledge - Required to set-up and deliver communications that produce action from your best potential clients.
- Soft assets - Automation so the connection process becomes a set it and forget it easily expandable process.
- Skills - Required to know how to implement a process that triggers action.
Relationships: Some resources needed to develop relationships include…
- Time - The time required to manage the sales cycle.
- Information - Required to understand what your best potential clients are already looking to buy, and how they perceive getting that.
- Knowledge - The knowledge to know what to do to create a relationship process.
- Skills - The skills required to know how to implement a relationship process.
- Soft assets - The automation to make the relationship process a set it and forget it easily expandable process.
Transformation: Some resources needed to create transformations include…
- Information - Information about your potential clients and their needs.
- Knowledge - Knowledge to know what to do to develop and deliver a sales process.
- Skills - The skills to know how to implement the sales process.
Expansion: Some resources needed for expansion include…
- Money - The investment you will make to implement a referral process.
- Knowledge - The knowledge needed to know what to do to create a referral process.
- Skills - The skills needed to know how to implement your referral process.
- Soft assets - The automation needed to create a set it and forget it easily expandable referral process.
What About Your Goal Resources?
Now look over the goals you wrote and identify the resources you have, and the resources you need to put those goals into action.
Okay, now I want you to focus on the right column representing the resources you don’t have as listed on your sheet. Would you classify any of the resources you listed as optional? If so, mark them off your list.
Could you substitute a resource from your “have” column and use it as a work around for a resource you don’t have? If so, mark this resource from your column representing the resources you need.
At this point you should be left with a bare bones list of MUST have resource.
How Will You Get Those Resources?
Is there a way to get a particular resource for free? It is absolutely amazing what you can do with zero investment.
Is there a way to borrow, barter, or trade for a resource on your list?
Which of those resources will you have to man-up and get even though it might be painful to make that upfront investment?
These hard to make investments are quite often game changers. Until you are willing to commit you end up wasting far more time and money than you would if you just bit the bullet and did it. I vividly recall one such investment. The investment was a little over $20,000. At the time that was a pretty big deal to me. It made my stomach hurt just to think about writing that check, but I did it. I did it because if I hadn’t done it I never would have gotten off the ground. I would have fizzled out just like so many small businesses who fail before any one even realizes they exist.
What’s that game changer investment you need to make? What will you have to do to get that resource no matter what? No excuses, no complaining, just deal with it…
What if…
I fully empathize with how hard that is for most people. You wonder what if… you are making a mistake. You wonder if… there is another way or a better option. You wonder if.. you can wait and do it later.
All that wondering means you are avoiding a decision because you are afraid of all the things you are wondering about. Here’s what I’ve found from my personal experience and my experience with countless really successful people. Highly successful people…
- make decisions quickly
- they change their minds slowly
- and once they commit they take massive action
What if you started behaving like a successful business owner, and fully committed to yourself and your ability to achieve what you set out to do?
What happens if you do nothing?
Are you more willing to take that risk, the risk of the consequences of doing nothing, than the perceived risk required to get the resources you believe would change everything for you and your business?
Coach Cheryl
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December 21st, 2009 at 8:33 am
[…] What Resources Do You Need to Increase Sales? | Increase Sales Coach increasesalescoach.com/blog/2009/12/21/what-resources-do-you-need-to-increase-sales – view page – cached Don’t complain, don’t explain, just deal with it Henry Ford II In a recent Geico commercial you seem to be spying on a sales meeting. One of the […]