“Did you know that they would choose that option?” my account manager Slacked me.
Last week, we had a client request an estimate for an integration into Google Sheets. I responded to the request by pitching them on a different option that would provide more value to them. This also provided more value to us as the price for that option improved by 36%.
At this point in my career, I’ve done a lot of selling. Beyond my experience, I’ve done industry specific training on selling. I’m not a phenom, but if you put me up to bat, I can put runners on bases.
Our account manager is a new addition that I’m developing to do these sorts of sales. This is unusual for a business like mine and at our size.
Typically, you’ll hear the advice I received from a friend of mine, in a recent meeting with a couple of other agency owners. He advised that for a tiny company like mine, this was a mistake and that I should own the sales role.
Another friend in that meeting has a business that is more than double the size of mine. He’s near the end of what he wants to do with it. His last hurdle is that he is and always has been the business’s sole salesperson. He’s having a hard time letting go of the role, even though he knows that it’s possible.
In a small business there are always going to be difficult or risky functions that are hard to source people for. The response to this is that the most invested person, the business operator, develops the capability to address those needs.
In the short term, they will generate a better return because having someone else do it requires expensive expertise or multiple skilled people. But it taxes the business’s growth as they’re no longer focused on strategic hurdles, but rather operational needs.
Sooner or later, you need to grow the business’s capability to work without you. It’s a difficult challenge, but until you surmount it, you’re not a business owner— you’re self-employed.
Featured image is of a succession tax stamp from late 19th century England. This is one of the earliest forms of inheritance tax. By UK Government and used under Public Domain.