Sales are up, then sales are down. One month is great, the
next month mediocre, and then the third month sales are down again. It seems as
though sales over the past few months have been as volatile as the stock market, bouncing up and down like a rubber ball. What is the rest of the year going to
bring? I would guess a lot more of the same.

The real question is are you a salesperson who is
going to sit around and wait for customers to come to you, or are you going to
go out and make something happen? That is really the difference between good
and/or great salespeople and those that could be labeled as exceptional
salespeople. Some people, or businesses, build these ivory palaces and wait for
people to come in based on location or advertising. Sometimes the people don’t come. If you build it
they will come only works in the movies; in real life you have to do more than
just build it. You have to give the people a reason to come to your company.

In a typical sales business there are two places to find
potential customers:

1. Those that come in or contact you
2. Your existing customer base

Advertising and marketing people state that as much as
80 percent of your volume comes from 20 percent of your customer base.
It seems to me the place to grow the business is in increasing the 20 percent to 25 or even 30 percent. In other words get your existing
customer base to buy more often.

Every sales organization must have a system or
methodology to maintain, develop, and maximize their existing customer base. If
you don’t have an extremely customer friendly, customer service driven,
customer focused, clientele system, we really need to talk. You can smooth out
the bumps in the road or stop the bouncing ball by proactively creating
sales. The choice is yours!

Author, trainer, consultant, and speaker Brad Huisken is president of IAS Training. He publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales
Insight” For a free subscription or more information on training, contact IAS
Training at 800-248-7703, info@iastraining.com, fax
303-936-9581, or visit the website at iastraining.com.

JCK