Ok, so you KNOW the challenge of increasing sales. You’ve probably tried a lot of ideas and only a handful worked really well. It can feel like such an uphill battle.
All that hard work can seem like a waste of time if you aren’t careful. You can fall back into old habits and stop innovating to reach more people.
Every time I get on a call with a client, we always start with what they can celebrate. I do this for one specific reason.
To put them in a positive frame of mind.
When you are feeling positive, you have more energy and focus and you get more high-impact work done.
Most of the time, it works well. They tell me all the wins that have occurred for them, and there always are some, even in rough times.
Of course, most people focus on their mistakes. But it can be far more useful to focus on what you are doing well and how to do more of it.
Recently, I got on a call with a long-time client. Tim was struggling right off the bat. He didn’t know what to celebrate.
“My computer died and would you believe it, my last back-up didn’t work, which I never checked. If you ever back up your data make sure the file isn’t corrupt. I lost months of files. Then…then my biggest client says he’s bringing in an employee to do my job. No warning. Just ending our contract. Well, he finished our contract months ago, but he just stayed on, so I never made him sign another one. It was a punch to the gut. The topper on all this is my wife wants to go to marriage counseling. I don’t want to go, but she’s insisting.”
I tried to keep him focused on the positive aspects of his business, but I wasn’t having any luck. He wanted to complain, so I let him.
I ask my son all the time, “Does complaining help?”
He just shakes his head no.
The struggle in business and in life never end, but that’s actually a good thing. Once it ends, that means you are no longer among the living.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from the Customer Connection survey that all of you’ve been filling out. You are sharing where you struggle in closing sales in your business. One guy said he created 3 ebooks and only 1 is selling well. He wanted to know how to grow sales on the other 2.
Another person asked me why more people aren’t signing up for her email list. She said people are coming to her site, but they just aren’t signing up.
Struggles are a fact of business. If you aren’t struggling, then you probably aren’t pushing outside your comfort zone.
The single best piece of advice I got about dealing with struggle was from my friend Brian. He told me when he feels like he’s struggling, he takes a break and just smiles. He says he smiles at his pain.
I thought he was crazy, but guess what?
It works.
Next time you hit a rough patch, just smile. See how it makes you feel.
The next step might be a little harder.
Go ask for help.
That’s it:
Step 1: Smile
Step 2: Go ask for help
This works because step 1 calms you and step 2 helps you connect with someone who can help you.
It’s this advice that changed my business. Know one can do it all, so asking for help is one skill you should improve this year. After practicing this over and over, I’ve come to realize this is the best advice I’ve ever received as I’ve built my business. Once I learned to smile at my struggles I found it easier to let go of my struggle and take the next most needed step.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
If you haven’t yet filled out the survey to let me know where you struggle in your business such as in closing sales, you can do that right here. I’m working on a free video training with supplemental materials. The more feedback I can get from you, the more I can craft content and program around your needs.
P.S. If you know you want to increase your sales in 2015 then you can sign-up for the free video training that will go live very soon. It’s a beautiful landing page my designer and I put together. You’ll be the first to know. I promise.