One of the things I find fascinating are the lessons that I learn when I am speaking at an event or holding a training. Case in point, I was speaking at an event last week and asking an attendee, who is a salesman, about his business. He proceeded to correct me by telling me that it wasn’t ‘his’ business and that he just worked as a salesman for a particular company.
I had to stop the direction of my presentation to make an important point that I believe is a common misperception among sales professionals. If you are a sales professional you own your own business! Confused? Let me clarify.
Who determines how much money you can make?
Who determines what activities you will focus on for the day?
Who plans your schedule of events?
Who makes the company money?
The answer to all of the above is YOU. Could you move to another company and sell whatever service or product they provide? YES. Do you have multiple aspects of your business to manage? YES. Is it important to you that your clients/customers are satisfied? YES. Do you have to manage a budget for building your relationships (dinners, promotions, etc)? Most likely – YES.
Your concerns mirror that of whatever big name is prominent on your business card. But the fact of the matter is, you are a business owner whether or not you identify it. The cool part of this is that as soon as you acknowledge that you run/own your own business, despite not having your own FEIN number, the sooner your business will explode (in a good way).
WOW, a business owner! Sounds better then just being someone else’s sales guy or gal doesn’t it?
My ultimate aim is to create a mental paradigm shift for you so that you begin to look at your business as YOUR business. I want you to begin to create systems for YOUR business. Systems create a predictable flow of results – this means a predictable flow of sales as well. It also means that your training is up to you and your results are up to you. This is good and bad news. The good news is that you are in charge of your future. The bad news is that you are in charge of your future – there is no one else to blame for how it turns out.
Don’t simply rely only on the resources that your company provides (whose name by the way, usually appears larger on your business card then your own name does). Remember, your skills are what make you more marketable. Your skill set IS your product. Your skill set needs to go beyond your selling skills. Being a business owner also means you are a marketer, a leader, an administrator and so on. Learning to manage all aspects of your business effectively is the ultimate challenge.
The minute you stop seeing yourself as an employee and start seeing yourself as a business owner is the moment that your business will begin to catapult to the next level.
