Can I just be as real as I possibly can?  Sometimes I hate working in my business. I love working ON my business, just not IN it. 

When I work ON my business I do the stuff I love or “need” to do…

• call friends who MIGHT also be customers.
•  Design cute posts for Facebook or Instagram in Canva.
• Go check out Pinterest for new group or challenge ideas.
• Post (and let’s be honest-SCROLL) through Facebook.
• Write a cleverly worded e-mail seeking to be all that and to provide VALUABLE CONTENT.

But what I am not doing when I am working ON my business is making money. If procrastination was income, I’d be a retired gazillionaire. On an island-with a cabana boy.

So, how do we raise a mug of our best IPA to level up our business? No, IPA isn’t a beer but an acronym for Income Producing Activities.

For your industry, what are the things you do that will actually make your money?

Let’s start with a generic list that you can expand on. 

Bring in Customers

Clients/customers/supporters are at the heart of ANY business. You have to have folks who actually WANT what you are offering. Folks who will pay real money in exchange for your product or services.

So, acquiring them and keeping them should be at the top of your list. Ideally, you are going to meet and acquire them without being spammy or obnoxious.

The question is How and Where do you find these clients?

• Networking events, both in person and virtual are a great place to meet new people. Be intentional but not salesy. Ask questions and write down what you learn.
• Join a professional organization- preferably something that you have a genuine interest in. If it directly supports your business, all the better. 
• Join a Bible study, book club or other group
• Volunteer at a non-profit
• Online advertising (facebook, using Pinterest to draw in traffic, or creating a Youtube channel about your product)

Once you have customers, do not forget them!  Making appointments for follow up is critical. Check in! Ask questions. What’s working for them? What’s not working? How can you help? Can you offer free or low cost support materials that will engender loyalty?

Here are some examples of follow up or customer care for different industries:

You get the idea. Be creative, actually listen to your customers to see what their needs are, and come up with creative ways to meet those needs.

Be a product of your product.

Actually be engaged with your product. If you are a coach, hire a coach for yourself. If you promote a weight loss product, are you overweight? Use your own product. If your product is clothes, do you wear your brands?

People are smart, and they can see straight through someone who is just trying to use them to make a dollar. Don’t be this kind of spammy salesperson. If you actually use your products, it gives you a genuine connection with your customers. Instead of just pushing a new kind of mascara with the advertising language your company gives you, you can genuinely share how the mascara has worked for you and what makes it different from other kinds you’ve tried.

Ultimately, it’s about building connections with your customers, not just using them to purchase products.

Develop the discipline to make calls

I hear so many times over and over from my team and from others in the direct sales space, “I just hate talking on the phone” or “I don’t want to talk to people”. I know this is a skill that can be hard to master, but it’s one that’s absolutely worth practicing.

If there’s just no way that you can make phone calls, figure out another way to connect with your customers and your team. For team connections you can use something like Trello or Microsoft Teams, and for customers you can use facebook messenger or texting.

HOWEVER, there is something to be said for having the customer service and people skills to just pick up the phone and talk to someone. Most marketers or salesmen that have mastered the art of closing a sale will tell you that it’s much much easier to close a deal or make a sell when you are in person or having a phone conversation with someone.

Think about it- on the phone you have someone’s attention, and you are able to participate in back and forth conversation where you can hear someone’s tone and inflection. It’s easier to tell if someone is getting annoyed at their kids while you are talking or if they are really interested in hearing more about one particular product that you might not have mentioned. It’s so easy for someone to see a text or message and forget to respond. With a phone call you have the opportunity to make a personal connection with someone.

Follow up with people

No matter how you’ve connected with a customer or potential customer to start with, you need to set a schedule for yourself so you remember to follow up with them. This is so so important.

You may have already heard the phrase, “the fortune is in the follow up”. If you haven’t heard that expression, it’s passed around for a reason. Following up with a customer can be as simple as checking in to make sure that they received their product and give them tips on how to best use it.

You can follow up at several points during the sales process.

• After meeting someone new for the first time, you can reach out to them the next day or a couple of days later letting them know it was great to meet them.
• After talking to someone about a product for the first time, you can follow up with a video from the company with more information about it, by offering to add them to a Facebook group where they can learn more about the product, or by sending them testimonials or before and after pictures. Be careful here – you don’t want to bombard people with ads for your stuff, but you also don’t want them to forget you even talked about the products if it’s something they express interest in.
• After someone buys your product – check in and see if they have questions, how it’s going or if they’ve even started using it.
• After someone has been using your product successfully for a while, follow back up and ask if they would like to share their success with the product or share before and after photos. These are great to show other customers and reminds this customer that you are cheering them on.

Meet people where they are and serve them

This is an all-encompassing tip that is really what’s going to make a difference between success in your industry and failure and burn out.

The one goal that we should all be striving to achieve in a customer focused business is to find what needs your customers have, and then come up with creative ways to serve them where they are.

These are always your best strategies and Income Producing Activities. It’s easy to get distracted by shiny new techniques like using Facebook messenger bots or creating social media posts, but those things aren’t going to bring in more money to your pocket ultimately. Determine where and how you can serve folks within your business and you are likely to stay in business. 

If you have income producing activities that you use for your business that you’d like to share, I’d love for you to share them below in the comments!