What’s more important?

There’s nothing more critical to the success of your business than getting those big sales closed. You know the ones. They’re the talk of your company. They’ve probably been cooking for a while. People poke their heads in your office every day and ask what’s happening. You know for a fact that without them your business can’t possibly fulfill your dreams. So why are you letting your time be whittled away by much less important things? If your company’s sales are complex, and you are at the stage where each one is strategically important to the business, you have to ask yourself why you would spend precious time on anything else. You can’t just hit the “easy button” and bring in sales.

Avoid avoidance

Many things in business are hard. But let’s face it. Strategic selling will always rank pretty high on the scale of difficulty for most of us. You may find selling fun and rewarding (at least sometimes), but it’s still hard work. And you can’t always control the process or the results. It’s the combination of hard and unpredictable that often leads to avoidance. OK, so you aren’t intentionally avoiding sales, but you just seem to find management tasks that will give you a more immediate sense of accomplishment. You can knock those out and THEN you’ll get to sales. Right. How’s your energy level after you’ve been through the shredder dealing with investors, HR, accounting, product development, etc. What sales?

Invert your schedule

When you think about it, almost anything can wait -- except making sales. But you probably don’t see it that way on a day-to-day basis. The problem with selling is that, to a large extent, you control the schedule. You have to be proactive and motivate yourself to create opportunities and close sales. There’s pressure to get it done, but it’s indirect. On the other hand, Joe from Accounting can create immediate need for your attention at any time of the day. So you have to change the way that you respond. Start the day with selling, and require a small nuclear explosion to blast you out of the business development frame of mind. Get to everything else only after you’ve made tangible progress on the sales front.

“C” the potential

Everyone in your company should realize that supporting sales comes first. You may be a CEO, a CMO, a CTO, a CIO, or a CFO. Whatever your C-status, you can play a significant role in sales. The trick is keeping sales in the front of your mind every day. In essence, your job as a C-level member of the company is to ensure that sales happen. Step up and do your part.