When we were starting BCS, we did a lot of research - interviewing employers and brokers, talking to other entrepreneurs, getting advice from people that we saw as experienced and wise. One of these conversations was with a friend with a long and rich resume of success in the sales and sales leadership fields. During that conversation, he told me one of his secrets for building a highly-performant sales team: a simple spreadsheet. This spreadsheet didn't count sales or dollar amounts - it simply allowed someone to fill in the names of everyone they talked to that week. It had a certain number of rows for the number of people leadership felt they should be reaching per week. With absolutely no regard for where that conversation went, whether they got the sale, what the next steps were, etc - the sales rep simply had to fill out the sheet and they'd get a cash bonus for the week. I was a bit surprised, as this was contrary to most sales roles I've been in. He quickly explained the reasoning - that if you did the footwork, if you simply contacted the people like we ask, you'll do fantastic. "You could suck and still win."
I took the lesson very positively. We'd done our homework on the business. I'm no stranger to hard work. It made me very confident that we could make this successful. As long as we continued doing the footwork, day in and day out, we'd win. Prior to the conversation, I had doubts as to whether or not we were "good enough." Impostor syndrome is common to anyone who starts a business. I learned then that even if we're "impostors," there's a lot of hope. So don't ask yourself "am I good enough?" Ask yourself "did I try?"
As long as you do that, and you don't quit, you'll come out a winner.
Commentaires