Want to Boost Sales? Forget about the Bottom Line

By Ralph Roberts

RISMEDIA, July 3, 2007—It’s never about the numbers, the profit and loss statement, or the bottom line…it’s always about the people, and the people only. –Roberto Giannini, Head Soccer Coach, Wabash College

A funny thing happens when you become a top-producing salesperson. You stop selling. You stop worrying about the numbers—about sales quotas and profits and the bottom line. You start talking to people. You build relationships, partnerships, and business synergies.

You stop selling, but you end up selling and earning far more than you ever did when you were trying to sell.

What’s the explanation behind this phenomenon? It is captured in the quote at the top of this article: “…it’s always about the people, and the people only.”

When you achieve a certain level of financial success, when you have money in the bank and no longer have to worry about paying bills, you can afford to focus more energy on people and relationships. And when you do that, sales begin to soar! Your clients and prospective clients, which pretty much consist of everyone you meet, can sense your genuine interest in their lives and their businesses and your commitment to serving their best interests, and they feel more comfortable buying from you than from a salesperson who appears ambitious to the point of being desperate.

If you have not quite achieved the status of top-producing salesperson, I recommend that you stop waiting for the time when you have enough money to afford shifting your focus to people and relationships. Do it now. Drop the profit motive. Give up the mentality of bottom-line thinking. Stop worrying so much about sales quotas. Start thinking about people and establishing personal relationships with the people you want to do business with.

As Terry Brock of Achievement Systems Incorporated explains, the underlying force that drives commerce is not E-Commerce but http://www.terrybrock.com/planners/programr.html” Commerce (Relationship-Commerce).

Through Internet discussion forums, blogging, and social networking sites like MySpace, R-Commerce is increasingly influencing the way people shop for and ultimately buy products and services. Before shoppers even consider contacting a salesperson, they may spend several hours or days researching online resources and discussing their situation among friends and acquaintances on blogs, discussion forums, and via e-mail and instant messaging. As a salesperson, you have much less influence over the decision-making process. Shoppers’ peers wield much more influence. In other words, prospective customers care far less what you say about yourself and your products and far more about what their peers say about you and your products. And that means that building strong relationships and lots of them is more important than ever.

To be an effective salesperson in this age of R-Commerce, spend less time marketing your products and services and more time marketing and branding yourself and nurturing relationships with clients and prospective clients. In short, start pounding the pavement online and off and leaving people with a positive and lasting impression. As you gain traction and your circle of influence begins to grow, the community you create will begin to spread the word far and wide. Your message will begin to spread like a virus. You can then stop selling and let your bottom line take care of itself.

Ralph R. Roberts, official spokesperson for Guthy-Renker Home and author of “Flipping Houses For Dummies and “Foreclosure Investing For Dummies” and can be contacted at 586.751.0000, or by e-mail at: RalphRoberts@RalphRoberts.com.

To learn more about Ralph, investing in real estate, and protecting yourself against real estate and mortgage fraud, visit http://www.aboutralph.com.

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