Fix it at the foundation!

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9 TIPS FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED By: Vickie Croteau, E.A H&R Block Franchise owner Phone: (207) 793-2041 Keep track of business mileage. Even if you use actual expenses, you will still need to prorate based on mileage. Employ your child and save Social Security taxes. Maintain a qualified home office and deduct otherwise nondeductible home expenses. A SEP, SIMPLE or Keogh retirement plan, may allow you to deduct more that a traditional IRA. When deducting entertainment expense, you need to record in writing: date, name and place, business purpose, and business relationships. Separate checkbook for business not required, but makes it easier to track business expenses as well as income. A savings account is a great place to hold the estimated taxes you will owe. Make your estimated tax payments on time. Even though you pay in the total you owe, you may be charged interest if not paid timely. Record income and expenses in a timely manner. (April 14th is not timely).

Strong sales results can sometimes become hard to execute on consistently, which is mainly because of money. Money is what clouds the minds of many salespeople and sales managers and in many ways it prevents them from performing at their full potential. Because of that many companies have tried a number of different ways to overcome weak results by using different compensation plans, different sales systems, different marketing, different management and even different salespeople. But that is not what will fix the problem, that is only putting a band-aid on a broken leg.

The best way to fix poor sales is the following - start with training. And, the first place to start training on is this, sit our people down one by one or in a group orientation to explain and emphasize first and foremost the values that you and the organization hold dear, as values are what truly guide a company. Explain to them your values in detail, with passion and sincerity. With out those two elements no one will believe the values or follow them, not even you. Your values can never come across as "cliché" or "lip service, the values must be internalized, lived and permeate the entire culture of the business so that everyone knows that they come first.

Then once you have thoroughly covered what the values are, you can move on to how you want them to think about those values while they work and, show them how they can be applied every day. It is not enough to just explain values then move on, you need to have your sales people envision the "values in action" before they ever meet one customer. Give them examples of how these experiences will play out for them by using the values of the organization to help make decisions. By helping them do this and by spending a significant matter of time teaching it (note teaching - not training) the new salespeople will certainly get the idea that "this is truly what the company values most", this is what keeps this company growing and respected by the community. As well, once an employee knows what the company values most right from the beginning, they will think to themselves "the more we do these things, the more the company will value us". That is all that you want them to walk away with, a true north for them to follow while in your employment and a feeling that their job does have a bigger purpose than just making some sales.

The next step in training is trickier. Do you train them on how to spend their day, how many calls to make, how to go out and get the numbers, on the financials, administrative duties, product knowledge, the corporate sales approach? Sometimes it is hard to say because every business will have its own priorities and beliefs on what needs to happen next.

Our suggestion at this juncture, is to move from the Values to the Philosophy. Explain the way your company sells to its customers and how you would like them to sell. This is where you paint a picture for them and gain solid buy in from the salespeople. It is very important to get buy in from your salespeople before they begin to sell or they will not reach their potential. You can do this if you have a sales approach that they can feel good about using and proud to be a part of. Not a manual or a script that they use but a state of mind and a philosophy on how you expect customer relations to develop.

You will explain to them the bigger picture of selling and the long term justification of using an approach such as yours. Explain to them exactly how a genuine relationship with a customer is developed and what truly builds successful business people - business people that will last, be respected by their peers and feel good about what they have accomplished. It won't be the most aggressive or smoothest salesperson but the one who does things purely in their customer's best interest. To be a truly genuine salesperson you need to work at it everyday. Prove yourself over time to your clients, gain referrals, take care of those clients and do it over and over again for many years. It can not be 1 out 10 clients, 1 out of 5 or even 1 out 2 that you do the right thing for, it has to be every one.

However don't try to blind them with the feel good approach, too many companies go overboard with the "get the customer to like you thing" that it distorts a persons perception of professional selling. It is undeniable that a good sales person needs to be aggressive at trying to develop business, however they need to balance that with the fact that a salesperson should only aggressively build business one way - the right way, there is a difference. The hustle and extra effort in getting in front of people are only a necessary activity of sales. But on top of that a well trained salesperson will get just as many new sales by thinking clearer and farther forward than the next salesperson. The ideal form of aggressive business building is both hustle and using your head.

Take a look at our past email newsletters. We were so busy in September and October of last year that we didn't get a chance to email everyone. We are all caught up now and have published these online.
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Dale and Ben Midgley
Co-Founders
The Golden Circle of Business©