Your best sales asset is you

Attract. Convert. Retain. Grow. These four simple words can make or break your business because they quantify each step along the complete sales path. Individually they are important, but together they are a revenue game-changer.

While the income garnered from current, long-term clients (ones that have been retained) are the lifeblood of any business, new sales (ones have been attracted and converted) help you reach your sales targets quicker, keep your people and machines working longer, and, ideally, create additional long-term business relationships (ones that can grow).

But how do you best create a new sales pipeline? You start with your best asset: You.

In his popular book, People Buy You: The real secret to what matters most in business, author Jeb Blount reveals that the single most important sales tool is you as the business owner or manager.

Blount writes that it’s your ability to build lasting business relationships that creates more deals, retains clients better, and, therefore, increases your business and personal income. He states that attracting more clients, especially new ones, depends on your skills for getting people to like you, trust you, and buy into what you’re selling.

The other side of that coin, however, is that you also could be the single largest impediment to gaining new revenue if you are not liked or trusted.

To succeed at sales generation and retention based on your personality, you need a mission statement that reflects your guiding principles. Make sure this mission statement also aligns with your vision.

There are a few ways to fold this mission statement into your business plan:

• List your core values and specifically state how you plan to apply those values to your business. Share these often.
• Take care of your staff so they, in turn, care for your customers. Reward excellence.
• Develop a set of procedures and protocols for customer care. This shortens response time.
• See complaints as opportunities for improvement. This is very Zen.

Blount sees complaints as learning lessons. His advice is to be more afraid of a client who doesn’t complain when something goes wrong versus one who does. It could mean that a decision to take their business somewhere else is being debated.

It’s so much easier to lose a good client than it is to gain a new client. But with a clear business vision that is reflective of how much you care, attracting, converting, retaining, and growing your client base should take less effort and pay off more. Good luck.