As someone once said, “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” And the logic therein is inescapable. We, as sales people have survived the economic blowout of the 80’s, the dot-com meltdown of 2000, and more recently the horrific collapse of the US financial system which rippled its way across all the financial structures in the world.

Happily for Canadians, we’ve been blessed with one of the strongest global banking systems, which protected us in many ways from the fallout that is so evident in the USA. That being said, the challenges of generating revenues, let alone profits are becoming increasingly difficult.

A good friend told me about his Dad, a furniture/appliance salesman, who taught the son a most important credo: “Nothing happens until someone sells something”. And he was right.

We find ourselves surrounded by marketers, and inventory fulfillment plans, along with accountants and line-item budgets. But the fact is that until someone identifies a possibility, builds a relationship, makes a sale, and then closes the deal, there is no revenue. It’s pretty obvious that without revenue, there are no profits. Without profits, there is no possibility of research and development for new products. Without new products, there is nothing more than a declining market. Think about the famous Buggy Whip manufacturing industry.

This is not to say that Sales is in and of itself the #1 criteria for success, far from it. It takes relationships between sales, marketing, inventory finance and consumer needs and wants to make a successful product and company.

A good Sales person understands this, and shares their knowledge of their customer base with the rest of the team.

CSE is a resource for all Sales people to share their insights with their colleagues, to everyone’s benefit.

Join up and share… it’s free, easy and quite social.