A retired sales manager recently commented, "I got out of sales in 2022. Companies were being bought up and the relationships didn't matter anymore. It is all about price and discounts now by the guys in the big offices." His idea of sales was taking clients on big trips and out to expensive dinners. Many of us who own or run businesses build relationships with tools and talents that bring in more business in today's unpredictability and confusion. BRING IN MORE BUSINESS, The Workbook to Increase Your Sales in Today's Turbulent Markets, is focused on integrating empathy and understanding throughout the entire sales process. You will travel through the process with Cary Heidesch who lost his job during the pandemic and chose to start his own business providing data analytic services, Paula Barton whose husband lost his job creating a greater need for her to increase family income marketing financial products, others who have used certain sales practices to help their businesses and my experiences growing my own business. The process engages customers as people with unique needs and concerns. This approach promotes long-term relationships between businesses and customers.
One of the first best things that ever happened to me was my parents refusing to pay for my tuition to the University of North Carolina. They believed their son would fare much better in a smaller school. So off I went to St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurenburg, North Carolina. However, more determined than ever to attend UNC, I jumped at the chance to earn lots of money selling dictionaries door-to-door in the summertime. My first summer gave opportunities to earn enough to pay my own way and I transferred to UNC. For three summers I recruited sales crews and traveled the country selling dictionaries. In my second summer I made the President's Club by selling more than 100 books in a week. Much later in my career I set a record for the number of home listings achieved in the first three months of my tenure with a real estate agency in Asheville, North Carolina. Those skills, honed by the Southwestern Company in Nashville, Tennessee, have helped me navigate the ups and downs throughout a long and fulfilling life. Company leaders tend to promote their top sales people to manage and grow sales professionals. Many of these sales managers fail because they are not trained to develop and motivate their personnel. Companies hire people to sell products and services based on personality and technical ability and overlook sales ability. We must do better as we face greater disruption in our markets than ever before. If climate disasters are not shutting down clients or our companies, then we encounter recessions and lost revenue, or our communities wrestle with lost labor and product supply interruption or technology imposes hardships requiring sales professionals to adapt and continue on. In the year 2020 I faced these disruptions and learned along with many of you.
The contents in this manual come from my experience bringing in business in good times and bad. You will learn how to build a solid foundation for growing your business and enjoy using a sales model based on listening and learning of concerns and needs of customers using empathy and understanding. Many who enjoy the sales profession find that the proven practices in this model bring in business in today's ever-changing and highly diverse marketplace.
