ARE YOU PROFITABLE?

Everybody brags about delivering value to customers…but do they talk about delivering value to The Boss?  No, not Springsteen….the boss who signs your checks. I used to think "I bring in the dollars…that's enough." And, as a salesman since I was 5, I still have that streak inside of me.

To be a consummate professional, it takes creating value on both sides. Here's an example: There's a big difference between gross profit and net profit on any sale. Every business owner knows it.

And, while you've got to have sales (of any kind) in order to be profitable, sales and profit are definitely two different things.

These are some times of intense price competition in many industries. A great example is in the retail markets. Can buyers, in particular, are known for comparison shopping and "shaking the tree" to carve the price down as far as possible. (And that includes you and me. We're consumers, too.)

It's become a common rallying cry in sales "if we cut this deal, we can make it up on future sales." My first experience with it was in my early days of ad sales. I left a meeting with a potential advertiser thinking 'this is going to be huge.' My sales manager wasn't as impressed as I was when I flopped down on the visitor chair in his office and started spewing my promises for more more more" if we'd take this cut-rate (half price) offer.

"But we'll make it up when it's time to renew! I told him, as though I had just tomorrow's lottery numbers. That's when he explained two rules of selling:

1. don't sell for potential profit, and
   
2. if you lose money on a sale, it's not good business to lose money on a sale.