Sales Gets You The Other Side of 'Busyness'

 As entrepreneurs, we all know the feeling: to-do lists a mile long, emails overflowing, and the constant hustle of business.

 It's easy to get caught in the busy trap ('we've all heard about busyness'), where you are flat-out busy but  not making significant overall progress.

There is a way to get beyond "busy" into deliberate growth. It's dedciating time on sales.

When I say 'spend time on sales' I'm including some very deliberate actions and exclude others - especially if you're a coach, consultant, service provider or sell B2B goods or services.

What is not sales? In short, anything that falls into the definition of marketing. And don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting marketing but if you spend all your time on marketing and zero time on sales, you're going to burn cash and burn out.

Let's take an example:

   You spent several hours writing and creating some posts for Instagram. They got some likes and views, and you feel hopeful about your results.

  BUT you didn't create the opportunity to have a single sales conversation or ask one individual if they would consider working with you or make a decision to buy from you.

So when I say "spend time on sales" I mean have sales conversations, so:

• Setting up sales conversations
• Having sales conversations with prospects
• Asking prospects to make decisions
• Explaining to prospects the value you deliver and how they can step into working with you
• Asking contacts to introduce you to relevant prospects
• Sales conversations with past customers to talk about where they are and see if there's a match
• Asking existing customers for more work or opportunities

If you're not having sales conversations where you consistently engage with prospects to understand their challenges and are asking people to make a decision to work with you, you're going to end up continually marketing with no end in sight. 

You need to add the next step - sales and sales conversations - so you can get out of busyness.

Because sales generates revenue. Revenue allows you to add resources to your business - whether it's support in terms of contractors, employees, outsourcing, or access to services that lighten the entrepreneurial load.  

Feeling so overwhelmed you aren't sure how to fit any sales activities into your time? A first good step is to ensure you are scheduling what you do and have a to-do list and then think: What can you dump? What can you delegate? What can you defer?