What Were You Doing Three Months Ago?

Before beginning my Home Staging/Redesign business, I was a successful sales person in the office equipment industry.  A sales manager that I highly regarded who had decades of experience in the industry taught me one very important lesson during a slight sales slump.

I was bemoaning that fact that I had just completed a VERY successful quarter - tons of new clients/sales and many existing client upgrades - and suddenly I was looking at a very empty sales board for the upcoming month.  Suddenly feeling like a failure I asked "Mr. Seasoned Sales Manager" what the problem could be.  He wisely stated, "I can tell you exactly why you are where you are today, because I know exactly what you were doing three months ago.  You were so busy doing presentations, writing orders and coordinating installs for clients and leads that you had been working on, that you hadn't made any time to continue prospecting."

There you have it!  I wasn't unique or a failure, I was a casualty of several months in a row of successful sales!  Gosh, I think I feel better ....

From time to time I review the lessons I learned from my hard-knock years in outside sales.  I then try to those lessons to my current world of self-employment.  Sure, things are great now.  But what would happen if I lost ONE of my MAIN agent partners?  It could happen; people leave the business all the time due to relocation, loss of a loved one, illness, etc.  How long would it take to replace that client of mine?  Do I have active prospects that I have been targeting that might be ready to sign on with Ross Designs?  What if I lost a client or two to competition?  That happens, too. People are curious about other vendors or just feel like they need to change up things once in awhile.  Point is, things happen.

So, even while enjoying a steady roster of clients it is important to remember that self employed people are SALES people and is imperative to continue "filling that funnel". so to speak.

If you do not have a lot of sales experience but are a self-employed person, I suggest reading a couple of books about sales and prospecting.  You will never be sorry for investing in yourself.