I have read hundreds of books, blogs and eBooks in the last seven years on all aspects of a home business. I have had real success in sales numerous times but always within the context of making someone else successful with my efforts on the job. I, like everyone else I know, was trained for a job market vehicle. When your boss is yourself sometimes we can be our worst employee.
Full disclosure says I must tell you I have not attained the success I seek. I am not a guy in a diner either. If you have ever spent time in a diner late at night you know the one. He or she knows everything and has an answer tailor fit for every person.
Every business is sales driven. Effective sales offer an item or service sold for more than it costs to produce it. The people who get rich maximize the value received by over delivering and under promising, day in day out.
There are some essential ingredients required for a cake to be produced. Likewise there are four basic, essential ingredients for any business to attain success. If one is missing you can’t bake the cake. The business success level will be as high as the lowest skill level.
Meeting people…. Essential advertising of one kind or another and some say there are 72 ways to do this. Most will use only four or five that are comfortable.
Building a list… Call it a candidate list, a customer list, your address book; it’s a resource to never stop building. I must grow if your business and for your income to grow.
Inviting… I believe this is the most crucial skill needed every step of the way. You will invite people to meet you, to put them on your list, to review your product or service. This is a two part skill too. In my last post I made my first stab at it. The actual invitation is something people may refuse or accept. They have to be allowed complete freedom to say yes or no. Manipulation in any fashion will sabotage you later. The most difficult portion is to having people who say yes actually appear as they agreed. You can have everyone say “Yes, I will look over the material” but if no one does and puts your information into a round file it is no different than everyone saying no… and a no is cleaner.
Follow up… This is often referred to as the money step. The invitation is again critical in making the follow up work and be effective. People buy or walk depending on how well the follow-up process is generated and managed.
Your ability to teach, model and promote these four skills will determine how well you do if you want to have any organization larger that you.
There are other skills that can be added to enhance or further the enterprise, all frosting on the cake in my view. Time management, presentations both to small and large groups and other skills are needed to reach the highest levels. Most of these are meaningless if the basic four are not all working. Everything else depends on mastering these four skills and inviting is as important as the other three combined.
People fail at the 95% rate in real estate, insurance, stock brokers and home businesses. We were all trained to drive a certain kind of vehicle called a job since kindergarten. This vehicle looks like it really does what we were trained for. However it’s on rails and whatever you do it goes where the rails go. Steering the vehicle using the rear view mirror or one of the other controls, even the actual steering wheel perhaps, only appears to direct your course.
Once off the rails, on your own, using the rear view mirror to steer or confusing the brakes with the gas will cause a lot of accidents. Discovering the steering wheel, will require letting go of lifelong learning and training. Once accomplished, once you have your hands on the actual steering wheel the entire enterprise shifts. You don’t have to be smarter or better than anyone else if you can steer the vehicle. No more praying, wishing or offering penance to get where you want to go.
We were not taught how to steer the job vehicle. Someone else has done it for you. Once on your own learning the art and science of an invitation no one will refuse is the essential skill. It binds the other three ingredients together and the four create a cake called freedom.
How Life Works 