When you first started your business, you probably did pretty much everything yourself. Market research, product design, customer service, changing the copier toner, maybe even sweeping the floors — it all fell to you.
Why did you do it? Well, most likely you had to. With an ultra-slim budget, you had to wear all of those hats because you couldn’t afford other heads to put them on. But, surely you also did it because your business is your baby, and you don’t hand off your baby to just anybody, right?
Now that the growing pains are mostly over and your business is doing well, are you still acting like an overprotective parent? If you continue to be involved with too much of the day-to-day operations – especially the selling part – you’re not doing your business or yourself any favors. It’s time to get off this hamster wheel, so you can start working on your business and not in it.
Who’s focusing on the big picture? That’s the crux of the problem with leaders who focus too much on the minutia of keeping the business running. When you’re so concerned about the small details, like making sales, the old adage that you can’t see the forest for the trees becomes a reality.
If you’re busy fighting every fire that arises – or, worse, sitting around waiting for a fire to start – then it will be almost impossible to find time to figure out how to reach the long-term goals you’ve set for your business. So, what can you do?
Here are four steps that will let you break the cycle of founder selling, so you can focus on the strategic goals that will elevate your business to where you know it can be.
You’re not a salesperson. Let’s get that straight. Sure, by now you may have a lot of experience in this role, you may even be good at it, but that’s not who you are. More importantly, that is not why you started your business.
This is why you need to bring in people who actually are sales professionals. The right salespeople have relevant experience, fit your culture, and bring passion for whatever it is you want them to sell.
Once the right people are in the right seats, you have to make sure they are set up for success. This is where training comes in. Your salespeople have to know the nuances of your business, including who your target customers are and how they can best reach them. Offering this training should be as easy and efficient as possible.
Hiring great salespeople is just half the battle; you also need to actually let them do what you hired them to do. If you continue that micromanaging, helicopter parenting we mentioned earlier, you’re not going to help anybody. Worse, this may lead to disgruntled employees who end up leaving, causing you to go right back to where you started.
Once you have the best people in place, they are well-trained, and you’re letting them do what they’re supposed to, that will take quite a bit off your plate. Of course, you still need to be able to see the results, and this is where tracking comes in.
Setting up an accountability and monitoring system will give you insights into how your salespeople are performing, help keep them accountable, and let you make any necessary tweaks and changes.
You’re never going to get your business where you want it to be if you are the one doing all the selling. MetaGrowth Ventures can help you find the right salespeople and create a training curriculum based on your guidance. In addition, we will set up a tracking system that you – as well as our performance coaches – can keep a close eye on. Contact us to get started.