The Most Important Lesson I Learned in 2012

I just posted a blog article at CCBizPro.com called, The Most Important Lesson I Learned in 2012 and I wanted to share that with our agents.  The article was written for small business owners but, as I was writing it, I realized it was very relevant to our sales team, especially since you are all independent business owners and in light of all the new services we have rolled out in the last few months.

Please take a moment to read the article first by CLICKING HERE and then take a moment to look over the tips below to better apply this article to your own processing business.

• Don’t be afraid to try something new in 2013.  Many of you still have not pitched our payroll services or web design services because you are afraid to change.  Don’t let fear of change stop you from growing your business.  Many of you may have tried a business model in 2013 that needs to be changed.  Maybe you tried selling over the phone and while that was effective for you, you now need to get out in the field and sell.  What are you going to try in 2013 that you didn’t do in 2012?  If you want to grow, you must be willing to make some small, incremental changes to your business.
• Don’t change your core business before testing out your assumptions.  If you were to ask me, “What is the biggest challenge I have faced building a team of agents?”  I can say without a doubt that the biggest challenge has been helping agents understand that every opportunity is not what it seems.  Some of you are slowly building your processing business and then, a friend comes along and says, “I have a business opportunity where you can make tons of money this month!” so you say, “Forget this processing business” and lose all of your momentum.  That is a mistake every single time.  I don’t mean that making a change is a mistake or even that leaving our team or our business is a mistake but, it is always a mistake to make a major change in your business model without first testing the assumptions.
• Create a controlled test of any new idea or change.  What are the assumptions of a new idea?  If someone says, “Here is a new opportunity where you can make $10,000 per month” ask them “How would I make that much?”  “What are you assuming I would be able to accomplish to make that much?”  “What are you assuming that other people would be willing to do?”  Has someone told you that you could make $10,000 per month selling another service?  Ask them what closing ratio that assumes and then test it for a couple days and see if that closing ratio is a correct assumption.   If someone brings you a new business opportunity and they say, “Everyone wants to sign up for this!”  Call up 100 random people over a 5 day period and ask them if they would be interested in signing up before you sign up to sell it.  Test the assumptions!!!!  If you are thinking about selling payroll services, decide to take one week and just mention it to your clients or prospects during your normal visits for merchant services and see how they react.  Maybe this is not a good service to offer in your market but, you will never know until you test the assumptions.
• Track Your Results.  If you have a new idea, you need to figure out what the underlying assumptions are, then create a controlled test to see if those assumptions are correct and then track your results so you can decide if you should move forward and make a bigger change.  Create some goals and say, “If I can accomplish X then I am going to move forward with this idea because that will confirm that my assumptions are correct.”

I hope these short tips and the article above will help you to have a great year of growth in your business in 2013!

James Shepherd

james@ccsalespro.com

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