Why you are your own Boss?

Zig Ziglar famously said that he would stand in front of the mirror in the morning and say, “you deserve a raise” and then would go out and give himself one! There are two positions in a company where you can do that – the owner and the salesperson. Lots of people esteem to be an entrepreneur, running their own business, setting their own hours, being their own boss!
First off, anyone that has tried to run a business knows that that is a fairy tale version of what it actually takes. Second, you are already there if you are in sales!

Mindset shift

First and foremost, to be your own boss, takes a shift in how you see your job and yourself. This article is on that very important shift from thinking like an employee to thinking like a boss. I do not have a boss. I haven’t had one for 15 years. Sure, I have leaders, but I don’t have someone that is breathing down my neck telling me what I need to do. I have coworkers that have a boss. The difference – I know what needs to be done and do it. I don’t need to be told. No one wonders if I am working hard or going to hit my numbers. I for sure have months where I haven’t hit my numbers but, on the whole, I did what I needed to do to get the job done. I do not have a job, I have a career. I do not work for a company, I have an organization that supports my sales. I do not aim for a quota, I go for income goals and those far exceed the number on my back that month.
Before you can be a true sales pro you need to have this mindset shift from an employee to an entrepreneur. From a worker to a professional. I promise you, if you feel that you are being micromanaged or your boss has it out for you or whatever it is as simple as the fact that you haven’t made this shift yet.

CEO of You, LLC

Being the CEO or President of any organization means the buck stops with you. They are responsible for their employees, their customers, their profitability and, ultimately, the success of the company. There is no one else in the company who has more influence but, also, responsibility. They have numbers to hit, and employees, share holders and board members to answer to.
This is how it is in sales!
When I first got into sales my manager at the time would order a name plate for every new hire that our name and then CEO underneath it. We would display that with pride right by our phones and I remember, before every dial, I would take a moment to look at it and own what it represented – that I was my own boss, in control of my own future.
If you owned your own business, what would you name it? How would you go to market? What would it take to build from nothing to something? I encourage you to have a think on this for a little while – what would it look like to own your own business? What are the advantages? What are the drawbacks?
At the end of the day we salespeople have a number to hit. It is on our shoulders to figure out how to get there. Whether you are packed tightly into a cubicle or sitting on your couch at home, when you sign up for sales you sign up for the ultimate in responsibility; to drive the revenue that fuels your organization. With this also comes great influence!

Take Accountability:

When I was in highschool I worked for a landscaping service. It was a small operation that was run by a friend’s father and he often used his son and their friends to help on weekends or during the summers. I remember one day my friends and I were supposed to be mowing the lawn at some house on the north side of town out by a lake. We showed up, rushed the job and then drove out to the lake to fish for the rest of the afternoon and got back to town about an hour or so before dark. When we got back to town my friend’s father was furious! We’d had the work truck the whole time and so he wasn’t able to get out to 2 other jobs that were on the calendar for the day. I remember exactly what he said to us as he jumped into the truck to drive out to those jobs,
“You don’t think I’d rather be fishing all day? But that’s not how life works. When you make a commitment you keep it. I’ve made a commitment to get their lawns mowed today and I’m going to keep it.”
This is what it means to own your own business. Your reputation and your commitment to service is your paycheck. If you don’t do it, then the job doesn’t get done and, if the job doesn’t get done, you don’t get paid. Do that a couple times even and your business is in real trouble because your reputation is garbage.
Now think about your Amazon delivery driver. How long would they keep their job if they only delivered half the packages in a day. Or the grocery clerk if they only rang up half of your groceries? the job isn’t over until it’s completed.
Sales people need to take this level of accountability in their role.
How many meetings were you meant to schedule today? If you didn’t hit it, then your job isn’t done. You can stay late or you can make up for it tomorrow. How did you get on against your revenue number? Your job is get these numbers and, until you take full accountability on this, you will always be holding yourself back. this is how a true sales pro thinks and acts. They take full accountability for their numbers.

All the reward, none of the risk

The biggest downside, in my mind, to starting a company is the risk. What if you can’t find a customer? What if an employee is sick? What if you get sued? Or Audited?
By being in sales you let the company you work for assume all of that risk. They get the sexy task of figuring out all of the infrastructure bullshit it takes to operate, and you get to just focus on making profits! Like we’ve stated above, you still have full accountability for the outcome but you have such little risk. The only thing you risk is your paycheck.

Some basic tips to run your chair like a business:

Have a business plan. What are your goals and objectives?
Have a strategy. How are you going to get there? You can’t just say “I am going to make the best widget” and just sit there on Tik-Tok all day waiting for it to happen. What is the plan?
Give yourself performance evaluations
Listen to calls
Study your KPIs
Coach yourself
Run your own marketing! There are all kind of easy ways to market for yourself
Build leads list (check out our article)
Stay organized. Keep your closed lost deals and stalled accounts
Use free versions of Mailchimp or even excel to run email campaigns
Get active on Linkedin. You don’t have to be an influencer but you need to be in the conversations
The day isn’t over until the job is done

Either you can act like an employee or you can act like the owner. If you act like an employee, don’t be surprised when your paycheck reflects it. This is a choice you make every single day.