Do you know the number one thing that STOPS small business owners from having the success they want?  It is quite simple actually.  The #1 reason small business owners do not have the success they want is that they do not have an adequate number of qualified people to ask for the business.  Period.  It is not lack of time or money.  Those are symptoms not the cause.  You can generate more income in less time when you surround yourself with clients that refer you.  You do that by developing your personal sales switches.

Money has often been referred to as green energy.  It is one of the most powerful energy boosters around.  Think about it.  When do you feel most optimistic about your exercise program?  When you have money in the bank.   When are you most energetic about starting a new venture?  When you already have money in your pocket.  There is an energy to having enough money.  I also believe it is safe to say the inverse is true.

That being said, what you want is a steady flow of business anytime you need it.  What you need is a system for producing that steady flow of business, a system that can be turned on to increase business and turned off to slow it down.

Do you have that steady flow of properly qualified prospects in your pocket right now?  Can you turn that flow on and off? If you answered no to either of these questions, keep listening. If you want to be able to answer yes to both of those questions:

1)    Take a hard look at who your clients are and how you are getting them in your door.  It is quite possible you are currently focused on bringing in business that makes you work harder instead of more efficiently.

I have heard bankers joke on this subject.  They will tell you they do not mind losing $1 on every deal.  They will just make it up in volume.  Is that what it feels like sometimes?  You are working harder, only to bring in less.

2)    Take a hard look at your calendar.  How many networking meetings do you have on your schedule?  Are you running from meeting to meeting next week?  This may work from time to time, but first consider the cost.   Is your time worth the running?

3)    I challenge you to scratch one of those networking meetings from your calendar.  Instead meet with your Team Nimbus facilitator, someone from a mastermind group, or a favorite client/friend.  Together, take a good hard look at your referral network.  Ask yourself, where is the highest and best use of your time?

4)    Create a system around making something happen for that referral source that is your greatest opportunity.

Susan is a settlement agent for a closing attorney’s office.  She has a number of different referral sources:  real estate agents, mortgage brokers, foreclosure attorneys, estate attorneys, and trust departments to name a few.  Each one of these sources requires different plans and offers different opportunities to boost business.  Here is something she is considering.

•    Mortgage lenders are a great “vein” for Susan.  More business from more lenders would have a significant impact on her business.
•    Her lenders’ greatest challenge is following up with their customers.
•    Susan has decided she wants to offer to mail out her favorite lenders client birthday and anniversary cards for them. They do not have the time.  Susan has the staff.
•    If she were to do this for her favorite lenders, do you think other lenders in the same office that would love the same service?
•    The beauty of this is if at any time Susan cannot keep up with the flow of new lenders who want her service she can start a waiting list.  Once she needs more business she knows exactly who to call first.

For this to work, you need to create a SYSTEM YOU CAN EASILY TURN ON AND TURN OFF.
Want more business?  Do more of your system.   Need less business?  Do less of your system.

If this sounds theoretical to you, I would challenge you that it is not even that.   A theory needs evidence around it that makes it more likely.  I portend we can and should operate our business more out of a hypothesis - an educated guess.  It takes the sting out of it not working and gives us freedom to be trying at least 3 or 4 of these hypotheses at any given time.

One of my newer clients is a carpenter.  He is testing out the mailing of pre-apology letters to homes in the neighborhood surrounding his newest client.  In the letter he lets neighbors know he will be working in the area, and includes his business card in case they should experience any inconvenience (ie: noise, truck traffic, construction materials).  Will this work?  We think so.  At the very least consider the impression he is leaving in the neighborhood.  It is worth the try and leaves the door open for different opportunities.  If it works he expand his business by expanding the number of mailings.  If it gets too much, he stops the mailings.

Here is the bottom line:  We get so busy looking for the next sales nugget that we are not taking the time to set up great sales systems.  If you take the time to put a few sales systems into practice, it could change your life.   Go for the next system before you go for the next sale.

BUT WHERE DO I BEGIN?!  Start by asking your favorite client or referral source what they want.  Then do whatever you can to help them accomplish their goals.   It is a no lose proposition.   Build a system, sales will come.