Skip to main content

Why Sales Is Keeping Businesses Afloat During the Pandemic

The American economy is taking a beating during the Coronavirus pandemic. Businesses have been shuttered, the stock market has tanked and at the time of this blog post, over 30 million Americans have lost jobs. Apparently many of these jobs are deemed "non-essential" which doesn't make a lot of sense when you learn what is "essential", but that debate can be saved for a later date.

One thing for sure is that if you're in sales, you are essential. Salespeople are the ones driving the business, bringing in clients or customers, talking up the business and keeping the registers ringing. No matter if you are selling cars, homes, insurance or industrial lubricants, you are, at this moment, keeping the business afloat. The service technician is important, as well as the receptionist and the CEO, but none are doing the grunt work you are doing. And none are bringing in sales. 



I like to think of it like this. I can have the best car in the world, with all the features and great style, but without gasoline, I have a hunk of metal that looks good but can't get out of the driveway. You, my friend, are the fuel that makes the motor run. Without you the odds of a business failing in this environment is much larger.

With this in mind, I don't suggest you burst into the office of the business owner or company president demanding a raise. Now is not the time for that. But don't be shy about letting the powers that be in your company know when you have a good sales day, or week, or month. Do your own calculating as to how much you're bringing into the business and save it as documentation for down the road when things turn around. When that discussion about a pay raise (or other perks) comes around, you'll have some ammunition with you. 

Please take a moment to subscribe to this blog and, of course, referrals are appreciated. Stay healthy and productive.

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Telemarketer's Leads - A Dumb Story

For a brief few months I worked as a telemarketer for a small firm owned by a young married couple. The husband was a bit of a hot head and kind of a jerk on occasion, but his wife was nice and had to put up with the guy.  One of their clients was a mobile home company that wanted people to come to the lot and see how awesome their singlewides and doublewides were. As telemarketers we offered incentives like a cooler and camera (back when they weren’t part of your phone) and other assorted giveaways. We got a small commission if we could book the client. My coworkers and I would call from a list of leads that our employers had purchased from someone. These leads were supposedly “qualified” ahead of time, meaning that they had been vetted to meet the needs of the client, the mobile home company. Unfortunately, most of the leads were useless. The people we spoke to didn’t live in the right geographical areas or their incomes were too low.  “Why aren’t you guys closing anyone?” t...
Post a Comment
Read more

How To Prevent (Or Lessen) Momentum Killers

Have you had a great sales run, with the wind at your back as you continue to sell and make money, only to have some event or holiday slow down your momentum? It's happened to all of us. I compare it to running at full speed down a field, and out of nowhere comes a patch of mud and tar, designed specifically to slow you down and make you work harder.  An example of this is the holiday season. For some industries, the end of the year is a great time to make those last minute sales and thin out inventories. But for others, it can be horrible. Let's face it, the holidays are about spending money on fun stuff, like electronics and clothes. No one is even thinking about buying insurance, unless they have to.  "I can't spend any money on life insurance because I have to buy Christmas gifts," is what I hear each year. (Nice priorities, by the way!) Having been through this for a few years I now plan ahead. Instead of beating my head against a wall trying to get people to...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Short Post On Social Media

Are you leveraging social media to help your business? Are you posting daily and creating content like the "experts" say to do? Most importantly, are you getting results? I've tried using most of the more popular platforms for my insurance business, as well as my writing and speaking business. To say the results are "mixed" would be generous. This may be because I really haven't invested much into advertising on these platforms.  The way I see it, when Facebook, for example, allows me to set up a free page for my business, that is like a "free trial" to see if I can get any interest in my product or service. After nearly 15 years of this trial period, I have garnered little to no business.  One can come up with two arguments here. The first is why would you throw money at advertising when you haven't seen any returns. The other side is that "you could have done better if you had quit being a tight ass penny pincher." Fair enough. But ...
Post a Comment
Read more