When you’re working from home, running your own small business, it is vital to understand the difference between marketing and selling. I found this out when I hired a woman to help me make sales in my workshop business. She was bright, fun, and energetic and I was very optimistic about her being able to enroll additional people for my Financial Stress Reduction Workshops. But I soon found out that although she was happily marketing me wherever she went, she was not making any sales. She was attending networking meetings and telling everyone what a great workshop I had, encouraging people to call me. She thought up great ideas for promotional giveaways, advertising displays, attendance at conventions. But those things cost me money, they didn’t make me money.
After a couple of months, I asked her how many prospects she had that might enroll. She said she had talked to lots of people. “How many people have said ‘Yes, I’m coming on this date’ and paid the money?” I asked. “Well, no one has done that,” she replied. Then I asked her to make out a list of how many follow-up calls she was going to make to all those prospects and ask them to enroll, and how many she expected to say yes. She dug her heels in at that point, and said, “Wait. That’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to have a quota!” I explained that in order to pay her, she had to make me some money by closing some sales. After some discussion, we agreed that we saw the nature of the job differently, and agreed to part ways.
After that experience, I made a checklist to make sure I was always conscious of what was “Marketing” and what was “Selling”. Whether you are doing the sales yourself, or have someone assisting you to do it, you need to make sales that create income, or you won’t be in business for long. Here is my checklist:

MARKETING: SELLING:

Costs money=expense Makes money=income

General description of product or service Specific benefits to a particular buyer

Talking to groups Talking to individuals

No close, no money paid Deal closed, money paid

Administrivia: paperwork Cash, check, credit card

Letters/thank you notes Telephone thank you/request referrals

Networking meetings Individual meetings/phone calls

Talking Listening

Leaving messages Having conversations

Undefined goals/unmeasurable results Specific goals/measurable results

Long-term payoff Short-term payoff

“Whenever you’re ready” statement “When will you be ready?” question

Information given: presentations Information gotten: interview prospect

Answers Questions

“Who can I talk to today?” “Who wants to buy today?”

Lists of features: when, what, where, etc. Specific benefits provided for this buyer

Someday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday or Sunday

Some people think that attending networking meetings, putting an ad in a newspaper or directory, or hanging out a business sign is enough, that you can then just sit back and wait for people to call you. But even interested parties need to be motivated to take action. Call them and ask a lot of questions—find out what they need and if you can help them with that. When you show them that your product or service can help them alleviate their pain or give them the pleasure they’re looking for, they will be happy to hire you, and all your clients will praise you and pay you.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

©Copyright Chellie Campbell. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.