Fix This Next Fundamentals – Sales
June 4, 2020
by Shannon Simmons

At the foundational level of the Business Hierarchy of Needs (BHN) is the creation of cash, otherwise known as Sales. 

Does that word bug you? If so, as a business owner, you have got to get over it. You can have the best product or service in the world, but until there is an exchange of value – your customers money for your products and/or services, you don’t even have a business. 

And there is a lot more to sales than just getting the credit card number. In fact I would consider that somewhere in the middle of the whole process, especially for a service based business. My observation and experience has shown me that most sales and marketing strategies focus on two primary things; attracting prospect and converting them to clients. Makes sense, I mean that is what sales and marketing does, right? Yes, but on the other side of that are two very important “commitments” that must be kept.

1) Your Commitment To Your Client

The Fix This Next assessment asks this critical question: Do you fully deliver on your commitments to your clients?

In other words, do you consistently deliver your brand promise, and is the client getting what they paid for? In a gym setting, your retention % and churn rate are good indicators on how you are doing.

2) Your Clients Commitment To You

Do your clients pay on time, every time? Do you have to chase people for money? Do you have systems in place for getting paid and follow up processes for overdue clients? This is all part of the sales process. A sale is not complete unless and until both parties “keep their end of the bargain”.

Remember I said “the sale” is the middle of the process? The back end of the process is the two commitments, so now let’s talk about the starting point of the sales process.

You.

The very first question on the Sales level of the BHN is also the one I see answered “no” to most often. Here it is:

“Do you know what the company’s sales performance must be to support your (the business owners) personal comfort?”

This is what Fix This Next calls “Lifestyle Congruence”, and it’s the number you want to know first.

I’m not pointing fingers here. If you had asked me that question when I started my business I would have had no idea, or how to figure it out.

But without that number, your sales goals (and mine) are arbitrary at best. Heck when I started my gym I thought if I could just get reach $10,000 in sales a month I would be living large, without even thinking about how much that put in my pocket. Reality caught up with me pretty fast. Bills are real.

So here’s how the Fix This Next sales “funnel” flows…

1.

Lifestyle Congruence

2.

Prospect Attraction

3

Client Conversion

4.

Delivering on Commitments

5.

Collecting on Commitments

Having these 5 core sales needs satisfied is absolutely necessary to create the cash flow every business needs to establish a solid foundation. In fact this blog post is part of that whole flow. We are looking to attract business owners who are ready to take the next step and looking for guidance to solve their biggest business challenge.

If that’s you, and you aren’t absolutely sure what your biggest challenge is, take the free Fix This Next evaluation here, and I’ll follow up so we have an opportunity talk about how to solve it. Let’s get fixing!