In the past three posts, I’ve been ranting about the economy, business, the technological trends in business, and how to build your wealth in a good or bad economy. The whole point of all these series of posts is that anything you want is possible no matter how bad the economy.
With the current situation of the economy, most people will think the way out is to go back to school to add more qualifications to what they already have. Hoping this will get them a better paying job, promotion, or salary increase. This approach would have worked in the industrial age where everything is being controlled by establishments or big corporations. But now, we’re in the fast-moving information age where the establishments and the corporations are losing control over you.
Every time a programmer successfully writes a line of working code, a job is being taken off the job market. This means some set of people are losing their jobs. But here is the good side, those lines of codes on the other side are still providing opportunities like never before in human history.
They are giving you and me the opportunities to become “solopreneurs”, build a business according to our lifestyle, and live on our own terms happily without depending on the establishment, an employer or the government. The opportunities are huge and endless. What you need in order to tap into these opportunities is to hone your skills of selling and know how to “create sales systems” with these opportunities.
That’s what will save you and help you get anything you want in any economy.
You don’t need all the business plans being taught in business schools, neither do I. You don’t even need a big budget. In fact, it’s better if you don’t have a tangible budget because you have the most energy to win when you have nothing to lose. You just need a simple plan to start with what you have, you need to care about a group of people you want to serve, you need to know how you want to help them and then run your business to help them as your friends not just to make the money.
That’s how you create sales systems with loyal customers that give you the edge and unfair advantage to make it and thrive in any economy.
And if I could break it down and tell you the important things you need in order to make this work and create your successful sales system, here are the four important factors or traits you need to get right to pave the ways for your ultimate success:
1. Get your head straight.
I mean “your thinking”. Stop being confused about the things that will help you get your way and open doors of opportunities in your business or career. What you need is selling. Like I said in part 1, a real business is a body of sales systems. You’ve got to make sales the most important thing in your business and career. Everything you do should be geared towards selling whether directly or indirectly.
I’m not against education in any form but the reality is most of the things being taught in four walls of formal classrooms are not what you need to be successful in life.
Let’s face it, the only reason you go to school to acquire skills is to make you “sellable”. Unfortunately, schools never teach you how to sell your skills in the real world.
That’s why lots of people are jobless. That’s why most graduates find it difficult to make ends meet after all their expensive educations.
There are lots that have great sellable skills, assets or resources out there, but they’re not making ends meet just because nobody is buying into what they have. The reason is people only buy what’s being sold to them. And if you’re not selling, how will they buy into what you have?
The major factors that make the difference between those who make it and those who do not in the eyes of society are all embedded in having a better sales system. People who make it big are having better sales systems that are constantly working for them and bringing in the sales. They also don’t stop there, they also work on these sales systems consistently making it better and better every time.
People do think that people like Warren Buffet is just an investor but he’s a salesperson selling every single day of his life. Dangote is selling every single day. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is selling every day. These people ain’t smarter than you. They just got their selling right through creating their “sales systems” and keep making it better and better consistently.
Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, if your dream is to make it big and not just get by, you’ve got to imbibe the idea of selling and find your way around it. To make it and thrive in any economy, you’ve got to get your thinking straight, that you need a working “sales systems” which will consistently help you in selling and you’ve got to keep making it better and better consistently in order for it to continue bringing you the income you need in excess.
[cp_popup display=”inline” style_id=”5282″ step_id = “1”][/cp_popup]
2. Get Your Planning Straight
In any economy, there are always lots of people who have burning desires to solve a particular problem. The second thing is to pave your way in order to create your working “sales systems” is to get your planning straight as a means to tap into solving a particular problem for a group of people. Find one group of people that wants to solve a burning problem; find a service, product or idea to solve this problem for them. Create a plan to make them know about your solution and make sure this plan will keep getting your solution constantly in front of them.
Find one group of people that wants to solve a burning problem; find a service, product, or idea to solve this problem for them. Create a plan to make them know about your solution and make sure that this plan will keep getting your solution constantly in front of them.
Like I said earlier, you don’t need a big business plan with a big budget like the ones being taught in business schools. All you need is a straightforward plan on how to get a solution into the market. And once the market accepts your solution, you can scale up to build anything you want. This way, your customers can even be your source of funding. You don’t even need a plan on how to scale just a plan that will get your solution into the marketplace. This is the bootstrapper way of creating a sales system to starting and growing a business or career.
3. Get Your Focus Straight
Anybody that tells you everything will be simple and easy has never created anything before. Even if it’s simple, one downside of technology and business in this age is you’re going to be enticed by lots of shiny objects that will constantly distract you, get you confused, and make you not knowing which way to go.
It’s when you get your focus right to only focus on the things that matter for your specific end goal that you will be able to take these disastrous distractions off your way and get meaningful results.
Apart from opportunities distractions, you’re going to meet lots of obstacles on the way. There are times you will be disappointed with your results. Sometimes, you’re going to be confused. But if you get your focus straight; work your plan, learn from your mistakes and failures, and make necessary adjustments towards your end goal; you will be better off.
4. Get Your Execution Straight
One of the main reasons most start-up entrepreneurs are not successful at business or at creating a successful sales system is because they are not consistent in their executions or don’t even know what to do. Unlike a paid employment where a boss tells you what to do and you’ve got to follow through on your task to be accountable to him or her every single day; as a start-up business person, you don’t have this kind of advantage.
You and only you, are the only one to make yourself accountable. The way to do this is by being clear on what you’ve got to do every single day and follow through every step of the way. This will keep you to your routine until you build up your business or career to whatever you want.
For a guaranteed way to be able to follow through and be constant at executing your plan one step after the other so you can keep adding up your efforts until you build what you want, the rule of the game is to make yourself accountable by being determined to be a person of integrity to yourself through accountability forces. This will go a long way in helping you. Accountability forces are all about creating an enabling environment that forces you to be accountable and exhibit Integrity. To create this enabling environment, you’ve got be sincere and be accountable to yourself first in every aspect and then find someone you will be accountable to.
If you can’t find someone to be accountable to, you can create a routine or ritual that you will follow through consistently to work on your executions every day no matter what. But it’s always great if find someone as an external force that will make you accountable.
This is why I have advised you to invest in yourself, find someone to coach or mentor you, or join an accountability or mastermind group in line with your end goal. This way you will have someone or people that will hold you accountable apart from yourself and also someone that will tell you the truth no matter how bad it tastes.
Conclusion
If you think success is so easy or it’s an overnight thing like in Nollywood films, you will miss the chance of creating a long-lasting success that happens over time.
Not all successful entrepreneurs are the same but they all get at least these common traits right in one way or the other at some point. Sticking to these factors and using them as a checklist to work on your dream will give you the edge and unfair advantage to achieving what you want.
The whole takeaway of these series of 4-parts posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and this part 4 you’re reading here is to make you understand the power of “sales systems” as backbones of getting what you want. Building these backbones can take some work and might take time but it will worth it in the end. Technology tools specifically the WEB tools will give you a better advantage of creating these backbones of your “ultimate sales system” and make you get what you want faster compared to good old traditional ways.
[cp_popup display=”inline” style_id=”5282″ step_id = “1”][/cp_popup]
Take Control. It’s the only thing that pays
Olusola
PS: Whether you’ve found this post useful or maybe you hate it or you just have an opinion, or maybe questions, let me know by leaving your comments below.
PPS: And don’t be selfish, if you find this post useful, Click on your favorite social button(s) below or at the side to share this with your friends.
Thanks.