I have multiple boxes of business cards for “businesses”, or more like ideas for businesses that I have thought about starting at one point or another. Multiple. And I might not even have used 10 cards from each box – another one of those things that is embarrassing to admit. Each box at one point was a result of a “great” idea I thought of at some point, but was never really taken as seriously as it should have. It was probably for the best, but man, it felt good to make some business cards and relish in the false sense of productivity.
Can you relate?
What is more fun than going on Vistaprint, picking colors, deciding on a design, then getting a box of crisp glossies in the mail a couple days later? I have business cards. I must be in business. Meanwhile, the cash flow statement shows an outflow of $75.
One of my favorite commercials features Kyrie Irving (a famous NBA player) dressed up as “Uncle Drew” (who looks like an old random guy) quietly joining a game of street basketball unbeknownst to everyone on the court. Prior to getting in the court, he has a little monologue where he playfully says that the only thing that matters in basketball is getting buckets. You can alley-oop, crossover, behind the back, slam dunk your way into the stat line, but all of that is for show. Buckets are the only thing that matters in the game of basketball. Just. Get. Buckets. That’s how Larry Bird, Kareem, and Karl Malone all became all-time greats.
What is the equivalent of getting buckets in business?
Sales. Period. Business inefficiencies, high overhead, resource wasting, all can be covered up with sales. Of course, your business could be so much better if you improved these things, but without sales, you could improve these things all you want and you would still have a bad business.
Your website could be trash (or non-existent), your LLC name could be lame, the color of your business cards could be ugly, the font of the decal on the side of your truck could be outdated, none of it matters if you generate sales. No sales, no business. You could have zero of those things and still create something viable.
We’ve all seen the fly-by-night companies that look like they were cobbled together by a high schooler and wondered how they could be in business. The answer is they have chosen to rightfully focus on sales, which trumps having a polished, coherent branding strategy, for example.
Why is there such a lack of emphasis on sales? Because unlike the enjoyment of creating business cards, getting sales is downright uncomfortable.
Making sales requires putting yourself out there, getting rejected more times than getting accepted, talking to people you don’t know, handling resistance, fielding objections, and more. The most successful entrepreneurs are those that embrace the discomfort, and do what they have to do anyway to get sales. This act of going against the grain, persevering through rejection, swimming against the current, and eating a nutritious breakfast, is what wins sales, the lifeblood of a business. Master sales, and you’re in business. Then, work on all the other stuff.
Easier said than done.
Edit: Someone else has echoed this, probably much better than me. Definitely worth giving this a quick read. I promise it is short.
Oh and here’s the commercial. Check out Uncle Drew get buckets!
