All Hands On Sales Deck

Everyone in the business needs to sell.

Imagine what would happen if instead of axing people right now, every company transferred all of the employees to a sales role – whether it had commission only or a salary as well – what difference would it make?

Would the same old resistance or excuses about “my personality doesn’t suit selling,” still apply?

Do you think your people would still complain about cold calling or door knocking or having to prospect for business?

I believe for most people, the option of being unemployed or selling would be a pretty easy choice. Sure some would do it better than others. Sales is a skill, not a personality. Some of the greatest sales teachers I have had in my life used to suck at selling. Instead of making excuses as to why they couldn’t – they just learned everything they could.

Guess what – they became more successful then the sales guy who thinks he knows it all. This is because we can never really “know it all!”

So if everyone in the company had to do some level of selling, what difference would that make to the level of ownership everyone felt towards contributing the growth of your business in a tough time or any time?

What precedent would that set for when times start to pick up again; you could have a sales army instead of just a few soldiers. Cost cutting will not let you flourish; it may not even allow you to survive.

Increasing profitable sales certainly won’t just let you survive but will actually let you succeed in any climate. This is the lesson from the world’s most successful companies. They combined great products/services with real world sales and marketing ability in tough times as well as good times.

It is a good idea to do a series of sales training this year as a way of making sure we are all maximizing our sales efforts, and remember everyone in your team could be doing some level of selling even if they were to do this for 2-3 hours a week.

If you have 10 employees, it would be like hiring an extra full-time salesperson. If you want to do some training let your coach know; if you want to buy a book for the team go get Jeffery Gittomer’s “Little Red Book of Selling” – get everyone to apply something and have some fun.

Either way there is no real reason that would stop everyone in your business right now from doing some level of selling… Is there?

About ActionCOACH

Brad Sugars founded the brand Action International in 1993 when he realized there was a disconnect between business advice and implementation. The answer was Action! Brad Sugars created a business coaching company so that business owners throughout the world can realize their goals in business. Today the company is known as ActionCOACH. To learn more about business, visit Brad Sugars Review blog!