I have been fortunate over the years to be able to increase my business by an average of about 15% per year.  People ask me how I achieve this. Over the next few issues of Mingle I hope to share some of what has worked for me, and also hope to hear from you.

There are a number of concepts that I believe have a great impact on business. The first starts with the belief that we are all in sales – we are all selling either a product or a service. In a former life I was a police officer and when one of my old colleagues stated firmly that he was not in sales, I suggested he was selling security to the public. Believe me, when you are trying to put a college football player in the back of the patty wagon on Saturday night after losing the Atlantic Bowl, you are definitely selling.
Another is that you get paid in direct proportion to how hard it is to sell your product or service. The more rejection you have to deal with, the more compensation there has to be in order to stay motivated to move your product or service, or as I like to say, you need to get paid for your “no’s”.

Yet another is what was proposed to me many years ago by successful businessman and master salesman, Wayne Cotton. He said: “If you have a problem in business, make it a process and it won’t be a problem anymore”. This proved to be valuable advice and has paid big dividends.

Here’s the part where you get to participate. In upcoming issues I will be sharing the sales cycle as it pertains to my industry (the financial services industry). You email questions or comments about yours, and together we begin to outline systems that help everyone.

‘Til next month, happy selling!

Submitted by James R Hanifen RHU CFP Partner at Life Quest Financial. Jim looks forward to hearing from you.
Email your questions or comments to jrhanifen@gmail.com