Just Go Sell Something – Dammit.

Just Go Sell Something – Dammit.

April 20th, 2011 // 10:29 am @

Just Go Sell Something – Dammit.

I’m writing to you today fresh off of watching a recorded episode of ‘The Shark Tank’, which carries a lot of lessons in it each week.  And a phone conversation with a client yesterday that ties in perfectly to what I wanted to share with you today.

The people who go on the Shark Tank often have very interesting ‘ideas’ and some businesses, most I wouldn’t even classify as Entrepreneurs.  For this one very simple reason –

They do not realize, or accept the fact, that they are in the marketing and selling business.

Not the “idea” business, or the “in love with my own idea” business.

No question, I commend them for making it on the show and taking at least that initiative.

And so many of them have poured their life, money, and other people’s money into their businesses and are looking to get to the next level.

And that’s the place for the Shark Tank.  But they don’t call it the Shark Tank for no reason at all.  If you watch carefully, sometimes they do fair deals and other times not, but what they are really doing is looking for someone who has an good idea and no business experience, that they know they can take and leverage the idea.

In many cases they have no intention of being in the “running” of the business, but in flipping the idea and concept to another already successful business.

They are investors, not entrepreneurs, at least not all of them.

This is not the point of my message to you this week.  It is this, the one common theme, the one ALWAYS ASKED question by the sharks is:

DO YOU HAVE ANY SALES?

It all comes down to this:  The real business in every business, is about money extraction from people in exchange for value.

No money extracted, no value present.

What’s frustrating is watching someone with a viable business, a great idea, a solid concept, that you know, and I know, we could make them rich with… sometimes saying, “geez, I’d love to get my hands on that business.”

The problem is, they focus on the wrong things.  The think they are in the “create a great idea business” instead of the “selling something business”

Look, I know parents with kids who have sold more Girls Scout cookies in a couple years than what these people have in their businesses.

And I say, just go sell something dammit.

You could go door to door, carpooling with the Mary Kay ladies and sell more than half of the participants who show up there.

You want to know the best medicine for a bad day:

SELL SOMETHING

You want to know how to break your business out of a rut:

SELL SOMETHING

You want to know how to determine if you are serious about success:

SELL SOMETHING

SELL SOMETHING is the answer to everything… at least it’s not a place you should start. (How can you go wrong?)

Which brings me to my phone conversation yesterday.

My Client, actually one of my client’s sales-people (ha ah, another novel idea, someone dedicated to selling) said very astutely,

“I probably want to be careful getting in the habit of changing a bunch of things around, we’ve got a successful system, done a lot of work, what we need to do is just get out there and sell it…we can always make adjustments and changes as we go…”

BINGO – And he is/was exactly right.

Too many people fall into the trap of “fixing” “changing” “developing” instead of SELLING.

STOP what you are doing right now, and get out there and make a sale as if your life dependent on it, soon enough, if you don’t focus on this – you can be sure, it will.

Scott

P.S.  You might be thinking how great of an opportunity it would be in The Shark Tank – but I’ve got a better idea…

Very few entrepreneurs ever ‘sellout’ to investors like the sharks, on the way up.  You wait until you’re on top to cash out.

What you need isn’t boat loads of money (in exchange for equity), you need learn how to market your business like a shark that smells blood in the water.
You need strategies that work, examples of real success stories, and re-dedication to selling.
Share Button

Category : Blog

Leave a Reply

Featured Content

What Others Are Saying...

"We have improved our business by leaps and bounds. We have, in the past 3 months, doubled our gross income... Thanks to Scott!"

James and AJ Clingerman

Sign Up For Free Tips, Strategies, and Updates