I don’t have to tell you that times are freaking crazy right now. But out of this chaos will spring new ideas that will undoubtedly change the world for the better.
These are mostly driven by the free market. In other words, good ol’ capitalistic: “find a need, fill a need.”
Health care will improve. New types of stylish face coverings will come on the market. Better remote work and communication solutions will arise to improve on Zoom and Facetime.
In fact, I bet YOU have a few excellent ideas of your own that, if produced or implemented at scale, could potentially change the world as we know it!
But I also know that many of these bright thoughts will simply disappear and never make a penny nor dent in the world.
The reason: ideas alone don’t change the world. Getting ideas accepted does.
Sales change the world
It doesn’t matter what kind of idea you are trying to push. Plenty of bad ideas have achieved wide acceptance and altered the course of society for the worse.
The key difference in something which impacts the world and one which doesn’t is therefore SALES, if you accept the definition that “sales is getting acceptance of a product, service or idea in exchange for something of value.” Nothing more than that.
Ideas must be SOLD. Or they go nowhere. Always!
In practical terms
This applies at ground level in every business. Despite the fairy tales, ideas aren’t enough. In from Zero to One, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel declares:
“Nerds are skeptical of advertising, marketing, and sales, because they seem superficial … What nerds don’t realize is that it also takes hard work to make sales look easy … If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business—no matter how good the product.”
I will quote that last part again, because it bears repeating:
IF YOU’VE INVENTED SOMETHING NEW BUT HAVEN’T INVENTED AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO SELL IT, YOU HAVE A BAD BUSINESS – NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE PRODUCT.
Think of the first mass-produced electric car, the GM EV-1. You couldn’t buy the thing, you had to lease it, and then they mysteriously made it unavailable although it was a great idea. So the all-electric car market was a dud until Tesla made it sexy to buy electric.
What it takes
The first step in sales is to learn how to connect with people, present yourself and your idea, and earn the confidence and trust needed on a personal level. You want to be an expert. Learn everything you can about the business space you are getting into.
However, that is only the beginning. To really succeed and make the BIG changes to the world you are dreaming of (and the big money), you need a way to make your sales SCALABLE and REPEATABLE. In other words, you need a system in place, something measurable that can grow beyond what you are doing now.
It’s this last part which I specialize in, and if you are at the point where you are looking to create a bigger impact with your ideas and your business, let’s have a conversation. You’ve already got to have some revenue going as I don’t focus on startups, but even small businesses can use our system.
Over to you! You can message me here on LinkedIn, email shaun@volohaus.com, or call my cell 760.815.4464.
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