Of course, you do! Without sales, you don’t need production or even marketing. In fact, your whole company is supported by sales.

We like to say, “Regardless of what their organization chart says, all companies only have only two divisions, sales and sales support.” In other words, if you’re not in sales, you’re in sales support. You are there to support sales.

So, how can you improve sales this year? Here are our top five tips to do just that.

1) Believe in your product

Sales is frustrating more times than not. The sales cycle always take a lot longer than you expect. Meanwhile, you’ve got bills hungry for bucks. It can get downright discouraging.

What keeps you going? A deep belief in your product and the benefits it will provide your customers.

But it’s not enough for you to believe in your product. Your whole sales support staff has to believe as well. It’s not only what keeps them going — it’s what keeps your people engaged in the sales process. It’s what encourages them to come up with solutions to sales challenges. Everyone they talk to will know they believe in your product.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals 

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post 5 Tips to Sell More This Year appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

One of the highlights of their visit has traditionally been a visit to the Napa wine country. Bonnie happened to be sitting next to their organizer at the World Conference on Entrepreneurship in Dublin, Ireland where we gave the keynote address last June. She suggested the students visit Sonoma County’s wine country instead this year and offered a two-hour seminar personally hosted by us.

Last Saturday they arrived in Sonoma County where we took them on a walk-and-talk. At each stop we gave them an essential lesson in entrepreneurship:

The 3 Core Competencies. No matter what business you think you are in, you are actually in 3 core businesses which you must master to be successful.

• Cash-flow Management: paying your bills with income from your business. You have to reduce your need for capital by outsourcing as much as you can, and by using your suppliers and buyers as bankers. Regular meetings and empathy for their interests are the keys to building trust and extending credit.
• Personnel Management: finding good people and building great people. This results in a reduction of turnover, the #1 hidden cost of any business. Requirements include the ability to create compensation systems for all staff based on sales, growth and profitability; public recognition for a job well done; and treating your people as an asset rather than a cost.
• Distribution Management: making every “sale” between you and your end-user. The first sale is to your own people who buy because they believe in your product and what your company stands for; next is the distributer’s or wholesaler’s ownership, who buys for strategic reasons; then the wholesaler’s sales people who buy for commissions; the retailer comes next who buys for quick turn, followed by the retailer’s clerk who buys for attention and recognition; and finally, the general public who buys for value, availability and social reasons.

The 2-Division Company. The most successful entrepreneurs think of their businesses, no matter how many divisions they have, as having only two divisions.

• Sales: Without sales there can be no other divisions because there simply won’t be any funds to support them. All income comes from the customer. The feedback that keeps your products and services relevant and marketable passes through your sales and customer service departments. They should be advising Marketing and Production, and not the other way around.
• Sales Support: This is everyone who is not in sales! This includes the administration, marketing, production, research, legal, accounting, HR, and even the receptionist. Tie part of their income to sales, such as a bonus. Have regular meetings between your sales and sales support people to discuss market changes, opportunities and challenges, and work together on solutions.

The #1 Rule. At every level of business, put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. Ask yourself how would you like it if you were on the receiving end of your own employment, sales, buying, and accounts payable policies? Empathy drives and bonds all business relationships.

We offered the students some infographics we have developed which take some of these complex concepts and graphically represent them for easy understanding. They are available to you as well with our compliments at www.barefootbonus.com.

We wish the students of Nanyang U. good fortune in their own businesses!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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The C-E-O (Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization) had their Annual Conference this past October 31 – November 2 in Chicago, and we were thrilled to be a part of it. When we got up to the stage and even before we began our keynote address, we were taken back by the spectacle of nearly 1,200 college students, faculty, and young entrepreneurs from around the world.

This gathering of aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs was representative of the future of the American economy. Ranging in age from 18 to 24, this was Generation Z at its finest! It was a moving experience to realize that among these young people would emerge the next Steve Jobs and similar business rock stars of the future.

Over the three days of the national conference, we heard many inspiring speakers share their experiences on what it takes to make it in business. We were most impressed by seasoned entrepreneur and senior editor of Inc. Magazine, Norman Brodsky. Norman began his keynote speech not from the stage but from the back of the room, true to his out-of-the-box theme. Then, as he walked through the crowd of young people, he asked a series of questions and provided some surprising answers.

At one point he asked, “What is the main job of the CEO?” The young crowd peppered him with an array of answers from “leadership” to “fundraising,” from “the buck stops here” to “company vision.” After each suggestion, he gave a loud emphatic “NO!” After a period of silence, Norman said, “Culture! The CEO’s main job is to build positive company culture – because true success ultimately comes from your people!”

We couldn’t agree more, and, as a matter of fact, our success with Barefoot Wine was really the success of our team culture. We gave them permission to be creative and, yes, even to make mistakes. This inspired a culture that was fun and friendly, open and respectful of the contributions of others. With the customer at the top, serviced by our sales people, everybody else in the company understood that they worked in Sales Support. Creating positive company culture is the main job of the CEO. Thank you Norman for the reminder!

We met hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs from C-E-O chapters in 43 states and several Canadian provinces. They were all there to soak up as much as they could from proven successful business executives. Throughout the conference, we found that the #1 misconception most folks had was they thought the distribution of their product was somehow going to take care of itself, and that the strength of their idea and the demand by the public would be enough to pull their product through the distribution channels.

Once again we had to remind them, “You can’t buy it if it ain’t there!” And it won’t be there unless you see to it yourself. This is especially true at first when you are an unknown. We live in a wonderful country with the most efficient distribution infrastructure in the world. Shopping in stores brimming with choices of all sorts of products gives us the mistaken idea that everything we see is all there is. But there are thousands of products we never see because they simply never made it to the shelf. Sure, you have to have a great product at an affordable price with a cute logo and compelling catch phrase, but distribution management is ultimately the deciding factor.

We hope our experience and the experience of others who spoke will give these young people the insights they need to succeed. We want the new entrepreneurs of Generation Z to be Generation Zero-limits! Go get ‘em, Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post The C-E-O is the Future of The American Economy appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.