More Money Isn’t the Solution
Mike Agugliaro
"After $500M in Sales, Two 8-Figure Exits, Authoring 28 books, speaking on top stages and 4 decades in Martial Arts: I have learned how to help business owners create Life, Business, and Wealth by Design"
There are many money strategies to help you improve sales. But they won’t mean a thing unless you start with some core basics.
Service business owners seem to universally complain about the same thing: They want more ways to make money for their business. It’s a commonly held belief that a cash injection can solve all their problems.
Imagine this scenario, because I’m going to throw some numbers at you…
Suppose that your service business had a 65% to 70% conversion rate. That’s a great average for anybody, right?
Now, suppose you run three jobs a day and you land two jobs daily at $15,000. That brings you up to $30,000 per day.
If you then worked 300 days out of 365 per year, you could end up with $9 million at the end of it.
That $9 million a year sounds great, almost surreal.
But that’s the dream for many service business owners, so they devise ways that they think will get them closer to those millions.
There’s one belief that many of them hold close to their hearts. They think that they just need to master sales.
However, there’s an issue with this line of thinking…
More Conversions Isn’t the Solution
“It’s all about sales!”
Most sales gurus tell you that they’ll teach you how to get more conversions. As a service business owner, you think that this is it! This is your ticket to turning your business around!
And why not?
On the surface, this sounds amazing. More conversions mean more money coming into the business.
However, dig deeper and you’ll soon see that mastering conversions don’t mean much if you don’t have processes to support your sales efforts.
Let me explain this a little more…
Suppose you get a really good salesperson and put them in a really bad company. How well do you think he’ll fare?
If a company has in place bad processes or bad culture, he may not get very far despite his sales skills. He may get a few leads that can pick it up a little, but they’re bad leads. It’s almost inevitable that he leaves the company from frustration and stuff.
I know that this amazes a lot of people. But sales isn’t the only solution. It isn’t even the main one.
If you got in with a big company like Costco or Lowes, you would get sales. Sales mean more money for you, but now, you have no leads. You may also see that you have leads that you can convert into sales, but then, you have no quality control.
Or maybe you don’t know how to manage your accounts receivable. Maybe it’s your accounts payable or managing your inventory that you have problems with.
You see, all these sales gurus out there are brilliant. But they’re only selling a very small part of the solution in my eyes. And before you get to the sales part, you need to shift your sights to another integral part of your business.
The Two Things That You Need to Create Before Focusing on the Money
Selling is an important aspect of any business. But before you do that, there are a couple of processes you need in place. Make the most of your future money-making prospects by incorporating these two things first:
#1 – A Strong Infrastructure
Imagine what would happen in your business if you don’t establish a strong infrastructure first.
I mentioned getting into a big company like Home Depot or Lowe’s for limitless access to sales. True, cash flow may increase for a while. But if you don’t have the proper processes in place, that same money can slip through your fingers.
As with any wealth-building strategy, you need to make sure that you know how and why you’re spending the money. You won’t know that if your accounting department isn’t on top of things. Or if you’re mismanaging your inventory.
What happens when you have cracks in your infrastructure?
You see your money slipping through those cracks.
And that’s not all…
When you expand without the proper foundation, you may find yourself getting into more than what the business can handle. Yes, you may increase sales exponentially. But you won’t get very far if you don’t have a process that monitors quality control for each client.
#2 – A Set of Core Values
Once you have your infrastructure in place, it’s time to understand your core values.
There’s a fine line between selling and serving. And a lot of people tell me that they serve, but they don’t live by their core values.
Someone may say that their core value is having the “highest level of integrity” and they serve a customer. But that makes me question their integrity, because what they say may be different from their core values.
Remember that if you’re thinking about training with anybody, you’d better make sure they’re someone of high integrity. And they need to have the skills to teach you a scope of things needed to really grow a sustainable business.
Build Strong Foundations First
You can get sales advice from virtually anywhere. There are so many sales gurus all around the world that want to teach you how to build your sales numbers.
But you’re in for a rude awakening if you think that money alone is enough for sustainable growth.
Think about it…
If it were really that easy and if sales alone could cure all, why are service business owners still having problems?
It’s because they believe that sales is the answer to all… when it only solves a tiny piece of the problem.
Without the proper infrastructure, you may see yourself in the same boat time and again. That proverbial boat is a leaky one. And you’re pouring money into temporary solutions, rather than building a solid foundation first.
Setting core values also play a part in the sustainable growth of your business. When you understand your brand and your core values, you can deliver on your promise to the customer. And once you’ve established credibility, you’ll be able to grow your sales.