Why We Created Our New Sales Training Program

I’ve seen it time after time—small business owners who aren’t happy with their sales team or their results. They call me with a single goal in mind—help me hire better salespeople.

That’s rarely the solution. If you aren’t training your current team, you haven’t set them up for success. Adding more untrained bodies will only subtract from your bottom line, demotivate your existing salespeople, and increase competition for the same meager sales. Firing and replacing your underperforming salespeople doesn’t address the problems in your program, like poor sales management, a lack of performance measurement, poorly designed incentive structures, and misalignment between sales and marketing.

I’ve been looking for sales training to recommend to these clients, but the few programs we’ve found are woefully out of date for the current marketplace, and none address entrepreneurial businesses.

That’s why we’ve launched our new sales training program. It’s called the Engagement Selling System, and it directly addresses the chronic struggle entrepreneurs face building and growing successful sales teams. Entrepreneurs’ business development is different in almost every way from large corporations, but no one has designed an approach specifically with them in mind.

For entrepreneurs, cash flow is a continuous stressor as revenue peaks and valleys are part of the business landscape—29% of businesses fail due to a lack of positive cash flow. All businesses need revenue to survive, and they need to increase that revenue every year to grow without taking on debt or selling equity.

According to trainingmag.com, training is largely deprioritized by SMBs. The average amount spent on training per individual in small- to medium-sized companies has been as low as $554—or less than .02% of their annual operating budget.

When companies spend $5,000 or more for things like a great website, but spend virtually nothing on improving the capabilities of the people responsible for generating their revenue lifeblood, the writing’s on the wall.

We designed ESS to improve conversion rates and create sales professionals who are prepared to outperform their competitors. It’s not enough to have a great sales system, it has to be easy to use and applicable across the wide variety of circumstances salespeople face. The goal of our sales training program is to move the needle by giving your team an approach they can apply immediately and affordably.

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Paychecks are for Pansies

I recently received an email from a former colleague who I respect very much—praising me for being brave enough to leave my job and start Redhawk Consulting. It was very nice to get that recognition from someone like Jeff who struck out on his own about 8 months before I did. Reading that note made me think about the last 6 months and how the enterprise has progressed.

Running your own business is tough and there are a lot of sleepless nights and pains in the pit of your stomach as you sweat every detail, every client and every dollar. About three months into this journey, I needed a battle cry—something internal and not necessarily shared on any website, business card or marketing collateral.

“Paychecks are for pansies.”

Granted, that is the PG version of what I actually say to myself but I want to demonstrate some decorum. In my firm, there is very limited recurring revenue. We get paid when we work directly for a client.

After spending 15 years with some kind of guaranteed income, it was up to me to generate 100% of the revenue. With a wife and two young kids, I was not just making a decision for me but for the people that mean everything to me.

As a competitive person, I’m very much inspired by those who endeavor to struggle, grind and win. In those moments when you are being tested and you could easily second guess your decision to go it alone, it is important to have a battle cry—whatever that is.

Recently, I added two more consultants to the firm and they are both personifications of this mantra. Josh started his own law firm because he wasn’t going to grow as fast he was capable of working for other partners. Paul was underutilized and his skill sets are too valuable to keep hidden deep in the bowels of an accounting department. Both have joined Redhawk and have accepted, with some degree of personalization, paychecks are for pansies.

This isn’t to posit that anyone who receives a paycheck is actually a pansy. This is for me. It’s how I push myself to put forth the best effort when no one is looking and anytime I have a fleeting moment of “holy crap, what did I do?”

I believe to truly grow, you need challenges- you need to struggle. To build meaningful wealth and success, you do it for yourself or you are left hoping someone else does it for you.

Push. Strive. Struggle. Win.

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