As a small business owner, either as a start-up founder or an established going concern, one of your greatest heartfelt desires is to generate enough revenue to stay in business and then some.
This is by no means an easy task. However, mastery of some revenue generation skills will help you weather this ever-present storm no matter the state of the Nigerian economy.
In the next few paragraphs, you will learn three key things you need to sort out mentally and in your attitude that will help you consistently generate revenue in your business. You will also learn practical steps to execute as a template for revenue generation.
SCORES TO SETTLE
August 2010 made it the 6th month that I had tried desperately to sell life insurance to either direct customers or enterprise customers. I had read all the books and attended every sales meeting without fail.
The wake-up call came when I began to see colleagues in our team who were not as educated, good-looking, well-dressed, or had product knowledge as I did selling in 6-figures and then 7-figures monthly.
In my deep thought and self-analysis, as you should always try to do as a business owner, I discovered the three key things I lacked which you may be lacking in your business which is preventing you from making predictable and consistent sales.
3 C’s TO CONSISTENT REVENUE GENERATION
The three key things you need to settle in your business are:
Confidence
Capacity/Capability
Consistency
Confidence is acting in the face of fear. To execute even when you are afraid doesn’t happen at the snap of your fingers. You have a knowing or resolute belief in yourself and what you have. You must settle it in your mind that your business is a calling and you are the best person for that venture, come what may.
Confidence means you must have a positive mental attitude and a healthy love for yourself. This will come from you doing a proper SWOT Analysis of yourself by embracing your strengths, leveraging opportunities in your business that come with it, and working on your weaknesses in a bid to minimize or eradicate the threats that come with it.
Capacity/capability was another thing that you might be lacking. Running a business and generating revenue is not a sprint, it is a marathon. The skillsets and the things you work on to succeed in the former are not the same for the latter because the distances they will need to cover are very different.
Capacity or Capability is about developing the right skill sets that give you a chance to make regular sales in your business. You must master the art and act of prospecting, that is generating inquiries about your solution. You must get good at giving persuasive presentations based on human psychology and emotional intelligence. You must become adept at tackling whatever concerns your potential customers might have and turn them into deal-closing opportunities. You must learn how to make the buying process smooth and painless.
Consistency is about showing up every day whether you feel like it or not. This is the discipline to show up at your place of business earlier than your peers and later than your competitors. You don’t do business based on feelings because diligence as a character is still being appreciated by buyers. You have to show up correctly every time. You must be predictable so you can be relied upon and be referred by customers often. This is the iron law of business success.
These are the mental and attitudinal scores you must first settle in your business before you can begin to apply the practical sales-based steps for revenue generation.
There you have it!
In the next article, you will learn the core steps to generating revenue consistently in your business.
Until the next article, keep showing up correctly.
